Messing Around In Secrets
by comet.leigh
Summary: Adrienne Dexter decides she'll run away from home so she can practice magic. After an unfortunate accident, Emma Tutweiller finds out about Adri's magical ability. But Adri's not the only one who has secrets...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 **

Secrets for Two

Adrienne closed the door to her dorm. Seven Seas High was taking a toll on her magical ability and left her for limited spell-learning. She hated the fact that she had to study magic in secret because it made her feel like she had to keep it from everyone; which was true, but Adrienne didn't like thinking about her secret and the secrets piled on top of it. Secrets led to lies and Adrienne had become an excellent liar when it came to hiding her magic. Or the fact that she was a witch.

Crossing the room, Adrienne dropped down on the floor in front of the chest at the foot of her bed. From it, she extracted her wand and spell books. They were crucial to her learning on her own, as she didn't go to some fancy magic academy. After setting the items on the bed, she walked to the door and locked it, hoping to prevent her roommate or any guests barging in, and seeing her doing magic, or exposing her secret…

She walked back to her bed and started reading where she had left off in Spells for the Quick, Lonely Learner. It was a book that was easy to read and do spells from, but challenging enough it kept her occupied. That was her goal, at least.

CHAPTER 1 SECTION 5

LEVITATION AND CLEANING SPELLS

Adrienne read the chapter thoroughly and practiced the wand movements, hoping to get through the lesson cleanly. Then came the part where she was to actually practice the spell with the incantation and wand work. That was the hardest part. She liked it because when she got it right, it gave her a sense of accomplishment.

"'After practicing the wand movements and incantation a few times, you are now ready to—'" Adrienne stopped when she heard a knock on the door. She pushed to wand into her tall boot, part of a pair she was wearing, and carelessly shoved her spell books into the trunk at the foot of her bed.

"Adri, are you okay in there?" Adrienne's roommate Tammy Harris pounded on the door. Thinking quickly, Adrienne pulled a bathrobe out of her closet and opened the door.

"Who—oh, hi, Tammy. I'm a little sick today. I won't be going to class. Bring back my homework for me," Adrienne started to shut the door when Tammy forced it open.

"Okay, hope you feel better."

Adrienne breathed a sigh of relief, and started to wonder how long this could go on. She took out her wand.

Tammy Harris came back into the classroom. She didn't stop at her desk, just went straight to the teacher's to whisper that Adrienne was sick today and wouldn't be going to class. Ms. Tutweiller was wondering why Adrienne was sick so much. This was the third time this week and she hadn't turned in all of her absent assignments. Something must have been wrong.

Like Adrienne, Ms. Tutweiller was an extraordinary liar. She called in a sub and decided to bring Adrienne's list of assignments and see what was up. After grabbing her clipboard, books, and papers, she left the classroom. But not before she gave a warning to Zack Martin to be good, or else he would get a two thousand word assignment on why you didn't fool around when a sub was around. Zack probably wouldn't turn it in anyway, because he never did his school work and was always ending up in detention for it.

Ms. Tutweiller left and started her way towards the dormitories, specifically the one Adrienne was in at this moment. It puzzled her how someone who was so nice and loved school so much could be sick so often. She hoped she would figure that out now.

"_Levortum_!" Adrienne did what the book told her to. The spell failed, but after a few tries, she successfully managed to levitate her mug of hot chocolate over the hardwood floor, without spilling so mush as a single drop of the deliciously sweet drink. Unfortunately, Adrienne's happiness was limited when another knock sounded on the door. Adrienne's focus disappeared when she answered the door. The cup fell to the floor and bits of glass flew everywhere. The cup had exploded on contact with the floor.

"Oh my, Adrienne are you—?" Ms. Tutweiller burst into the room after pushing the door open. She screamed and dropped what she was holding, and pointed to the wand, the book hanging out of Adrienne's trunk and the mess of hot chocolate n the floor. Now she understood why Adrienne was missing school so often.

"It's not—!" Adri started.

"What it looks like? Adrienne Dexter, you can't lie to me! There's a wand in your hand, a spell book is sticking out of your trunk and when I walked in here, that mug was quite stationary—_in the air_!" Ms. Tutweiller waved her hand behind her and the door shut by itself. The woman looked quite distraught, with wide eyes and her auburn hair highlighted her rosy cheeks. She was flustered. Adrienne stared at the door with wide eyes, too, hoping she would forget that she had seen that or the fact that her lush, silky brown hair was matted to her face. Her cheeks were burning and she was pretty sure that they were really red.

"My dear, how long did you think you could keep this from me? Or anyone else for that matter. I really don't think your roommate would appreciate—!" Ms. Tutweiller started.

"Whoa! Wait a minute. You think this stuff is Tammy's? No, actually, Ms. Tutweiller, I'm a witch. Look at the name in the spell book," Adrienne said and watched her teacher walk over to the trunk and look at the name in the book, the one that would show who the book really belonged to. She never expected to be telling Ms. Tutweiller what she was. It never occurred to her that Ms. Tutweiller would be the one to find out. Maybe, hopefully, she would keep it a secret.

Ms. Tutweiller looked in the books. She found Adri's name in each of them. She stood up and slowly turned around. This was the reason that Adri was missing class so often. She was a witch, and pretended to be sick so she could learn magic on her own.

"So this is why you've missed class three times this week? To study magic? This is why you've been neglecting your studies in the school you go to. I should have figured it out earlier, but I never would have thought anything like this. Oh my," Ms. Tutweiller seemed distraught. Adrienne hugged her to help calm her down. After all, Ms. Tutweiller was like a mom to her; she had helped her with her homework and other problems before this.

"I'm sorry, if I seem like I'd rather be studying magic rather than other schoolwork. I don't go to a wizarding school so I had to buy books and study them on my own. I came here so I could be away from my mom, because she wasn't a very good mom, and she could never leave me alone to practice my magic. She was always nagging about how I should get up and do something with my life than mope around all day. When I heard about this school, I ran away and seized the opportunity to study magic. I didn't know anyone would find out," Adri explained and let go of her teacher.

Ms. Tutweiller had already thought of a plan to help Adrienne out. "Well, I don't approve of running away from home but I have thought of a way to help with your problems."

"And how do you plan to help with that?" Adrienne asked bluntly. She was scared and the tone of her voice came out a bit nasty.

"Don't talk to me with that tone. Anyway, I plan to help you like this," Ms. Tutweiller. She waved her hand over the hot chocolate that was still on the floor. It disappeared and the mug fixed itself. The stuff she dropped earlier flew into her hands before she set them on Adri's bed. "I am also a witch, Adri."

Adrienne watched in amazement and fear. The teacher she thought she knew had the same secret. But the part about how that teacher was going to help her in her magical studies became clear almost instantly. "Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that you're going to be my teacher for regular school and we're going to have lessons in magic as well?"

"You caught on! But yes, Adri, that is my plan. You have been studying on your own, and I plan to further those studies. Just remember that I don't have to do this, I'm choosing to. Your secret will be safely kept in the greatest secrecy, whatever you decide to do," Ms. Tutweiller picked up her clipboard and started to leave the room. Adrienne's cheeks flushed red again.

"Wait!" Adrienne made a decision. "I'll do it, I'll take the lessons."

Ms. Tutweiller turned around, about halfway through the door. Smiling, she said, "That's great! Now, if you'd kindly follow me back to class. Class is still going on and Zack is probably tearing the classroom apart."

Adrienne smiled at the worried look on Ms. Tutweiller's face, and nodded. Together, they made their way down to the classroom, where all the students were quietly working from their books. Even Zack was doing his work but at a closer look, Adrienne could see he was doodling a picture of Ms. Tutweiller. This was not, however, missed by Ms. Tutweiller, who walked over to his desk and ripped the paper from under his pencil.

"Oh, too bad, Zack, maybe you'll like to do that two thousand word assignment that I told you that you would do if I came back and found you doing anything like this," She said and crumpled the paper up, shooting it into the trash can by her desk. The substitute left, leaving Ms. Tutweiller in charge again. The students paid no attention to her, but had their focus on Adrienne, who sat down.

Cody Martin leaned over and threw a piece of paper at Adri. "Hey!" she exclaimed and Ms. Tutweiller snapped her head up just as another dozen paper balls were thrown.

"Okay, class, the next person to throw anything at Adri will get a detention. Now, then, let's get started on our next lesson," Ms. Tutweiller started teaching a lesson on geography of the US. Adri couldn't focus and found herself thinking about the lessons she would receive in about twenty minutes, when class was over. Adrienne was slightly excited and scared and even nauseous. This wasn't supposed to be like this. She had also, in about half an hour's time, become the teacher's pet of the day. It was a bit of an awkward feeling, to be teacher's pet, to have someone look after her. Not only that, but Ms. T. called her "Adri" and that was strange.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The Lessons

When class was over, it was time for dinner. Adrienne didn't know when she was going to have her first lesson, but she wanted it to be soon so she could see what kind of teaching method Ms. Tutweiller would use.

Adrienne ate her dinner with Zack, Bailey, London, and Cody. Tammy was off with her friend Lauren. This left her to sit with her recent friends, and then there was London.

"You wanna know what I think? I think school is stupid. We shouldn't be allowed to go because learning rots your brain and you, you learn stuff!" Zack exclaimed. He was being anti-school at the moment.

Cody and Bailey disagreed and London nodded in agreement with Zack. "Zack, we've been through this before! If you don't get good grades in school here, you get to go back to live with Mom. And school does not rot your brain, it expands it. Learning opens up a world—umphug!"

Zack shoved a piece of bread into Cody's open mouth, laughing maniacally. Bailey was even laughing and London was still confused with all of Cody's fancy talk. Adrienne, however, was appalled.

"That is so immature! Zack you should really be nicer to your brother. And, for future reference, keep all your snide comments for your head, they'll do more good that way," Adrienne said and got up to throw her paper plate away. A note found itself flying toward her and it landed on her plate. She picked the note off of the plate and shoved it in her pocket and then threw the plate away. Rushing away to a spot where she wouldn't be seen, she opened the note.

_I know you probably don't want to start lessons yet, but I feel it is probably best if we start right away. See you in the classroom after you finish eating. _

Adrienne hadn't expected lessons to be so soon, maybe tomorrow, but not the first night after her decision. Regardless, Adri slowly made her way to the classroom. Upon arriving at the entrance to it, she found that the windows, that usually let light in, were covered up expertly. She couldn't see in the classroom at all. Adri walked into the classroom, and noticed the absence of light. She shut the door.

"Are you wondering why there isn't any light?" Ms. Tutweiller's voice could be heard, but it sounded like it was everywhere. It sounded a bit amused and evil.

"Oh, no, not at all, I was just thinking how cool it would be to learn spells in the dark. That's always been my dream, to learn spells and not see where they're directed," Adrienne said sarcastically, the tone dripping from her unseen sentence.

"Okay, okay, truce. Do you have your wand with you?"

"Yes."

"Well, I want you to pull it out and try to cast this spell: _Luminatus_. That's the spell that will bring light into the room. Try it, don't be shy."

Adrienne pulled out her wand. "_Luminatus_!" She managed to get a tiny flicker of light, but failed to light up the room.

"Don't worry; you'll get it, just try again. I know you'll get it."

"_Luminatus_!"

The whole room lit up in a blast of light. Ms. Tutweiller was clapping excitedly. "See, I told you that you would get it!" Adrienne snickered at the overly- excited teacher.

"Okay, but there's one problem, there aren't any covers on the windows. Someone could see us, and expose my secret and yours. That's a potentially big problem for both of us, I hope you know," Adri said matter-of-factly. She was a bit annoyed at her teacher. The best way to expose themselves was to keep those windows uncovered. It was an advertisement for disaster.

"Well, then I guess I'll have to fix that don't I?" Ms. Tutweiller said in her small child-like voice. It amused Adri how much Ms. Tutweiller sounded like Kristen Chenoweth. Their voices weren't the same, but they were small and child-like. Ms. Tutweiller waved her hand toward the windows, and, almost immediately, covers appeared over them. The covers blocked out the light that was coming in from the lanterns outside. Then she waved her hand and the classroom lights turned on.

"Yeah, I'm not really ever going to get used to that," Adrienne mumbled.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, dear?"

"Oh, nothing really. Just the fact that I won't really get used to the fact that you are a witch too. You can use magic like I can, even though I can't do much yet. Levitation and lighting up a room, that's all I can do. Even with my spell books, it will take a while to learn," Adri said and sat down. She sighed and tears welled up in her eyes.

"Adri, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Ms. Tutweiller became concerned and sat down on the floor beside the desk Adri was sitting at.

"My mom, that's what's wrong. When I go home, she'll be really mad, and she'll make my life miserable. When I ran away and came here I didn't think anyone would find out about my secret and here you are and nobody's ever cared so much about me before and then there's you helping me with my magic!" Adrienne burst into tears and Ms. Tutweiller hugged her.

"Oh, Adri, I didn't know that's how you felt. I assumed you would have a nice place to go back to after high school. I'm sorry that you can't go someplace better. That's not in my control, but you magical education is, and gosh darn it, I'm going to make sure you make the best of it before you leave Seven Seas High!" Ms. Tutweiller tried her best to comfort Adrienne but had no luck, because, at this, Adrienne sobbed harder. Now there were tears all over the desk and more coming.

Ms. Tutweiller conjured up a tissue and tried to wipe off Adri's face. "There, there, Adri. You'll be fine, I promise, I'll—I'll take care of you while you're here. I can help you after high school if you want to continue your studies. I can help you choose a magical career, if you so choose. But please, in the name of all things holy, stop crying. I hate tears, I really do."

Adrienne smiled through her tears. "Really? You'll help me after high school? Oh, thank you, thank you so much! You won't regret saying that, you really won't. Thank you!" Adrienne threw her arms around Ms. Tutweiller, who was a bit baffled by how fast her reaction was. She returned the hug. When she was released, and losing some feeling in her arms, she noticed that there were still tears coming down Adri's cheeks. Ms. Tutweiller conjured up another tissue and wiped Adri's face.

Adrienne smiled and stood up. She offered her hand to Ms. Tutweiller, who was still on the floor. The teacher took it and Adrienne gave her another hug. They were still hugging when Mr. Mosby walked into the room.

"Emma? Adrienne? Sorry to interrupt this cozy gathering but may I remind you that curfew was over two hours ago! Adrienne, young lady, you will go to your dorm this instant!" Mr. Mosby was almost yelling but he sounded really mad. As Adrienne left the room, she closed the door and pressed her ear against it.

"Emma, I am really disappointed in you, keeping a student up this late. On a school night!"

"Mr. Mosby I—!"

"Absolutely furious! If Mr. Tipton were to find out about this—!"

"I don't—!"

"You could lose your job!" Mr. Mosby fired at the teacher. "The students were on a riot downstairs. Screaming about how Adrienne Dexter was up and out of bed, nowhere to be seen and she was heading this way the last anyone saw of her! Then I come up to find the windows of the classroom blocked off and you two having a cozy hug fest in here!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mosby, it won't happen again," Ms. Tutweiller sounded defeated.

"I am most certain it won't. Goodnight Emma."

Adrienne started to bolt downstairs, hoping not to be caught after she heard Mr. Mosby yelling at Ms. Tutweiller. She turned the corner and into the girl's hallway. Sprinting down the hall, with soundless steps, she made it to her dorm, only to find it locked. Adrienne tried to remember the spell she had come across in one of her books. It was to unlock various items, including doors. Then it hit her.

"_Produmento_!" Adri managed to unlock the door and open it without disturbing her roommate. She shut it quietly, and proceeded to tiptoe to her bed. Tammy shifted in her bed, but did not wake, and Adrienne crawled into bed. From there, she closed her eyes, and dreamt of her day, and the magic that would soon follow.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The Concerned Teacher-Parent

Adrienne woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and annoyed; her alarm clock was going off as if to flaunt the fact that all it had to do was beep, and she had to go to school. That wasn't something Adrienne was ecstatic about, but like everyone else that didn't like it, she dealt with it, and didn't complain. She got good grades and tried to not fail any tests. Adrienne was not, however, and overachiever. She didn't go out of her way to achieve excellent marks in the class like Bailey or Cody. But she didn't go out of her way to get bad grades like Woody or Zack. That was rigoshdarndiculous.

Adrienne got dressed and made her way downstairs with her backpack, ready for class, but very tired indeed. Walking down the steps proved to be a bit difficult and she tripped after the third step down. She was falling, but was caught by someone. She didn't know who until her savior spoke.

"Goodness, Adri, you gotta be more careful." It was Zack Martin, and he was telling her off for falling down stairs when tired.

"Sod off, Zack. I don't need your criticism at this time of morning. Snide, rudely comments are exactly the type of thing that will get you hurt," Adrienne had been annoyed with Zack's behavior since day one on the ship.

"I wasn't criticizing, I was helping. Maybe you might not want to be tired and walk down these stairs," Zack said.

"What?" Adrienne couldn't grasp the direction the conversation was headed as they descended down the steps.

"You should go to bed earlier rather than staying up late and getting Ms. Tutweiller in trouble," Zack scorned her.

Adrienne glared at him and shook a fist. She stomped off, and almost ran into London, who was counting her footsteps in increments of ten. Giggling slightly, she got to the buffet and started to put food on a plate. About halfway down the line, she bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry, Ms. … Oh! Sorry Ms. Tutweiller. I—I didn't know you were there, um I'll just go around then," Adrienne said, a little embarrassed. Her cheeks flushed red and she moved around the teacher, trying to hurry away.

"You're fine, really. No harm done. I can, however, expect you to be in my class, right Miss Dexter?"

"My stuff is ready to go," she said, indicating her backpack hanging from her shoulder, "but, yeah, you'll see me there."

Ms. Tutweiller gave her a searching look, but then nodded and walked away. Adrienne sat down at a table by herself. She wasn't alone for long, not before someone sat down.

"So, I hear that you skipped curfew last night."

"Oh! Hi, Shep. Um, yeah, I did, and I enjoyed myself," Adrienne said a little stupidly. Se had a huge crush on him but was looking for reasons why he was just now talking to her. He never had before, so why now?

"That's pretty sweet. So, what did ya do? While you were up, I mean," Shep sounded a bit shy, but he might not have known what to say.

"Well, I've been getting behind on my schoolwork, so I decided I would have Ms. Tutweiller help me catch up."

"Oh, so that's who Mr. Mosby was yelling at."

"How do you—oh, the boy's dormitories are on that floor. Right. Didn't realize you could hear him. But I guess everyone could hear him, am I right?" Adrienne silently kicked herself for sounding so stupid. "I really didn't mean to get Ms. Tutweiller yelled at, but it happened. I hope she's alright though. I know! Can you ask her how she's doing? It would help me if I knew."

"Sure, anything for Dexter the Rebellious. You're pretty cool," Shep said and walked away, his hair slightly waving in the wind.

"Dexter the Rebellious, I like it," Adrienne said after being stunned for a few minutes. She ate her food and started to climb the stairs to get to class. Her class was Algebra 1, with Ms. Tutweiller. There were other teachers, but Adrienne was graced with having one teacher for the whole year. It made things a whole lot easier, and she could possibly become teacher's pet. Adrienne giggled when she thought of how Cody wouldn't like that, even though he wrote most of the lesson plans.

"What'cha laughin' at?" London heard Adrienne's giggle, and ever the silly Aries; she wanted to know what was going on.

"Oh nothing, just that we would be learning about pi today in math, that's all."

"I love pie! My favorites are key lime, apple cinnamon with whipped cream, low-fat blueberry…" She trailed off, still naming her favorite kinds of pies. Adrienne was amused by this, and it showed on her face.

When she entered the classroom, a few students had showed up, but the rest of the students were still to come in. The bell rang three minutes later. Most of the students piled in. Adrienne noted that the windows were no longer covered. She took out the materials she would need for the class: a pencil, calculator, notebook, binder, book, and whatever else she might need. Like a protractor, one like she didn't know how to use. Protractors baffled Adrienne.

"Okay, everyone, today we will be learning about pi. Can anyone tell me what this is?" Ms. Tutweiller pointed to a number on the board. She was always so cheerful and tried to make class fun, sometimes at her own expense; the students loved to laugh at her. "London, can you tell me what this is?"

"The three point fourteenth time you've had a bad manicure?" London guessed; she never got answers right.

"Um, no," Ms. Tutweiller looked down at her fingernails, "eww, okay! Pi is a number that is crucial to finding areas of circles and is a big deal in the math world. If you don't know what pi is, people will look at you funny, like you're some kind of nut."

"Ooh! What kind of nut?" London asked, looking up from filing her already perfect nails. If you said something that might be remotely interesting to London, she would be more likely to learn.

"A kind of nut that will get a sticker over her mouth if she has one more outburst like that again," Ms. Tutweiller warned, and London seceded into silence and began filing her nails once more. You also had to know how to shut her up.

For Adrienne, the day went by really slow, but she could only think about what she was going to learn about in her magical studies tonight. Hopefully Ms. Tutweiller would choose a different location, so as not to be hunted down by Mr. Mosby. Adri really didn't want to get her in any more trouble than she was already in.

The rest of the day's classes passed by without much thought from Adrienne. She thought about what she was told last night, and that kept her through the classes until it was time for free time before dinner. Adri threw her books into her backpack, but didn't see her teacher cringe at her carelessness of her treating the books. She started to rush out of the classroom, but was stopped.

"Miss Dexter, wait until everyone is gone then come see me please."

The students "Oohed" childishly and left, thinking Adrienne was in trouble.

When everyone had gone, Adrienne set her stuff down and pulled a chair in front of Ms. Tutweiller's desk. The teacher didn't look up, so Adrienne broke the awkward silence. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Tutweiller?"

She looked up from the papers she was grading. "Sorry to keep you waiting, I had some last minute papers to grade. Now, I wanted to say something, if I may. I noticed that you were a little distracted in, well, all of my classes today, and that's not like you. You usually answer questions, you're focused, you're on task, you participate, but I didn't see any of that. Your eyes were glazed over, like my classes were boring. London participated more than you."

"I'm sorry, I was…thinking," Adrienne said with a partially glazed look on her face. She was half in the conversation, and the other half of her mind was elsewhere. How could London have participated more than her?

"That's what I'm talking about, that look right there. You're very distracted, and you're not even all here right now. Is there something you want to tell me?"

Adrienne snapped out of her fog and looked Ms. Tutweiller in the eyes, which wasn't helping at all. She turned away quickly. "No, I'm…okay," Adrienne said not very truthfully. When she looked back at her teacher, Ms. Tutweiller was giving her a searching look; she also looked a bit worried, like a parent. A parent she wished she had. She also hoped that she didn't hurt Ms. Tutweiller by not telling her what was going on.

'Well, I want you to know that you can always tell me anything. I'm here to listen, anytime you want. I'll see you at tonight's lesson."

Adrienne nodded and walked to the door, picking up her stuff, and leaving. Now she was afraid of Ms. Tutweiller becoming too parental and worrying. Maybe it wouldn't get like that, but there was always the possibility. She never had anyone care so much about her and it made her sad that she had to wait fifteen years before someone cared. Her mother didn't care, and her father ran away. She didn't have any other family, besides her mom. Running away seemed like the simplest answer to her problem. Little did she know that Ms. Tutweiller would figure out her secret _and _possess magical ability as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Lesson Number Two: How to Keep Control

Walking down toward the C Deck for dinner, Adrienne wondered why all of this had happened. Was it because she needed someone to care for her? Or was it to help her expand her magical knowledge. It couldn't be perfect for Harry Potter, who had to go back to his aunt and uncle's house. But when he got to Hogwarts, he was free. A possible idea struck Adrienne: what if Ms. Tutweiller was teaching summer school? Then Adrienne didn't have to go back to live with her bloody mom and sneak out again next bloody school year.

Upon arriving downstairs, Shep took her arm. He was so cute, and he was a perfect gentleman, too. "What did Ms. T. want you for? Did she yell at you for getting her in trouble the other night?"

Adrienne looked at him. "No, actually, just the opposite; she wanted to know if anything was bothering me. I told her no, of course, but I really do think she cares about me. Maybe I'm being a bit paranoid. She probably only cares because it's her job to act like someone you can talk to. But, she's really nice," Adrienne started to feel more comfortable with Shep. "I only wish my mom could be like that," she added, talking more to herself than Shep.

"Maybe you need to talk to your mom, you know, tell her how you feel. Possibly suggest you both go to therapy to repair your relationship, that's what I had to do with my uncle. I live with him and one day, things got really rocky. I started to do stuff I wasn't supposed to and my uncle was going to a bar every night because of his girlfriend breaking up with him.

"I finally decided that I didn't want things to be like they were, so I told my uncle what was bothering me. The next day, he came home. Said he never went to the bar, he came straight home. He got a brochure about family counseling, so we thought we'd try it. Things have been better ever since," Shep finished and got really quiet. He kept walking, not saying anything.

"Wow, that's really great that you fixed your problem. I thought the answer was to run away. But I do have other reasons to believe that running away was the best possible decision," Adrienne said thoughtfully. She was touched that Shep was being so open with her, and wished she could do the same. The only problem with that was if she told him, she'd have to kill him. Nobody could know her secret, unless you were the highly, intelligently frazzled Ms. Tutweiller.

"Adri, come sit over here!" A group of friends called to Adri, now arguing where she was going to sit. Adri giggled and went to the buffet so she could get some food. After piling it with food, she went and sat down next to Bailey.

"What did she want after class? Did she yell at you for lest night? Did she give you lots of detentions?" Questions were being thrown at Adri, and she didn't want to hear them.

"No! Okay, she seemed a bit worried about me, that's all," Adrienne said, now thoroughly annoyed. The table started shaking, and all the silverware were clanking. The students looked really scared, wondering what was going on. Adri, too, looked fearful because deep inside, she knew she was doing this.

Ms. Tutweiller watched Adrienne leave. The poor girl was probably having such a hard time coping with her running away from home. She didn't sound like she had a good home to go back to. The teacher only wished she could help her, maybe adopt her. But that was crazy; nobody's parent was their teacher in school as well. It was a strange thought, but one Ms. Tutweiller was going to look into.

She grabbed her things and headed downstairs for dinner. If she had not been staring straight forward, she might not have seen Adrienne talking with a boy. The teacher hid behind a plant, hoping to catch some of the conversation. Adrienne was talking about her teacher, saying that she probably only cared because it was her job to. Ms. Tutweiller knew that her student didn't really mean that and followed slowly behind, until she reached the balcony, where she watched the students down below. The one student she was particularly interested in was Adrienne. There were kids down below asking questions that seemed to be pressuring Adri to answer.

"No! Okay, she said she was a little worried about me that's all," Adrienne responded with annoyance. Ms. Tutweiller was about to shoot the note about that night's lessons, but the table Adrienne was sitting at started to shake. The students at the table looked really scared. Adrienne did too, probably wondering how she was doing it. Ms. Tutweiller knew she had to do something, and decided to act quickly.

"Adrienne, oh thank goodness I found you. You were supposed to help me with lesson plans for tomorrow right after free time but you never came. Let's do that now before either of us forgets again," Ms. Tutweiller put her hand on Adrienne's shoulder, neutralizing her powers temporarily. She pulled Adrienne upstairs and into the classroom. After locking the door, she sighed and turned around.

"Okay, Adrienne, I want you to calmly explain to me what happened down there just now," Ms. Tutweiller said, a bit scared of what Adri was about to say.

"I don't know what happened. They were asking me all sorts of questions about why you kept me after class and it sort of happened," Adrienne looked scared and confused, like someone who had accidentally murdered someone.

"Well, how 'bout we look at one scenario. Today's lesson is going to be how to control your magic. If I wasn't there to neutralize it, you would have blown you secret. That's not something I can fix easily. Now, wait here, I'll cover the windows, and then we'll begin.

Ms. Tutweiller covered the windows again, like she did the previous night. Then she turned around and saw Adrienne shaking slightly. Pretending not to have seen that, she started the lesson. "Okay, well then, we'll start now. Control is key to keeping your magic undetectable. If you do what you just did, it will spiral out of control, and the magical realm will be in great danger. You have to learn how to stay calm in pressuring situations, because you don't want to expose your secret."

She conjured up a cauldron and potion ingredients. "There is a potion that you can drink that will calm you. It is called the 'Essence of Calm.' You will need this for the next few days, so that when you're outside of this room, you can be calm and not threaten to expose yourself. Is that understood?"

Adrienne feebly nodded, looking at the potion ingredients littering the teacher's desk. Ms. Tutweiller tried to find out what Adri was thinking, what was behind that expression. Feeling that Adrienne would probably not want to talk about it, she continued the lesson. "Well, come here, you won't learn by sitting down! Okay, well the first thing you need to do is…" Ms. Tutweiller ran Adrienne through the steps, looking at her every so often to see if she was paying attention. Adrienne took notes, but looked far away, as if she was not really paying attention, but she was. There were notes covering everything that was said and they were thorough, so they were accurate and precise.

"Great notes!" Ms. Tutweiller said, pointing at the notebook Adrienne held.

Adrienne smiled and continued to watch her teacher make the potion. She would jot down just about everything. Emma Tutweiller wasn't the least bit distracted, and continued to add ingredients. When the potion was finished, she let it sit, as it was supposed to.

"Okay, moving on, we need to get you to stay calm when you're not under influence of the potion. This is very important so I need you to make a list of things that calm you down."

Adri started to make a list of what calmed her down and Ms. Tutweiller started to clean up her desk. She didn't like it being cluttered, so she cleaned off what was necessary and left the cauldron on it. Then she went to check on Adri.

"How are you coming along, dear?"

Adrienne held out her notebook. It had a list in it, and it was concise. The list itself was very effective.

pleasant smells

Ms. Tutweiller

Sleep

Writing

"That's a pretty good list. Seeing as I can't be around you all the time, I can't really be a stress reliever. But calming scents do sound like a good idea. We can supply you with calming scents for the next few days as well. That's how we'll start tomorrow's lesson. We'll try to pressure you into getting out of control. It'll be an experiment."

Adrienne seemed a little uneasy about pushing her ability. Especially since she almost exposed herself earlier. She decided bed was the answer and left right after the lesson was over.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The Biology Project

Adrienne woke up the next morning and realized that she didn't really remember when she went to bed; it could have been very late at night. All she knew was that she would have to scramble to get ready because she overslept by twenty minutes. Her alarm was set for an hour before call time down on the Sky Deck. Her eye lids felt heavy as she reluctantly shuffled her way out of bed and over to her closet to find something to wear. When Adrienne deemed an outfit suitable, she went into the bathroom to put it on. That was the first and last outfit she pulled out of the closet before she got everything ready to go for another day of school on board the S.S. Tipton.

Tammy woke up just as Adrienne was making her way out the door. "What… what are you doing?" she yawned and stretched her arms. When she turned on the light, both girls squinted at the sudden change in light. Adrienne was beginning to perk up a bit.

"I thought I was going to go up to Sky Deck and get some fresh air before we're called down. You know that, Tammy. I'm an early riser," Adrienne tried to sound a bit upset that her roommate was being forgetful of Adri's habits.

"Well, lately, you're also one to sleep in and stay up late. You've been in and out of that classroom and Ms. Tutweiller seems to be doing the same. What are you two doing?" Tammy asked, now starting to get out of bed. She yawned again and put on a pair of slippers located on the floor next to her bed.

Adrienne was astonished, and could feel herself getting mad. "That's none of your business is it? You shouldn't be trying to intrude your way into people's lives. Their business does not become your property!" Adrienne was now yelling and could feel her magic welling up inside her, like a volcano about to explode. She quickly removed herself from the room and ran downstairs to calm herself down. The salty ocean spray and the seagulls and the sound of the ship cutting through the water would help her achieve this task.

Adrienne took the steps three at a time and stopped abruptly when she got to the bottom. Bailey Pickett was standing with her back to Adrienne, and hadn't turned around. She had her arms resting on the railing and was hunched over them. Adrienne slowly walked up.

"Early riser?" she asked, stepping up. Adrienne mimicked Bailey, and leaned over the rail as well.

"Today, at least. I was thinking about home and everything. I bet you feel the same way too," Bailey said with a glint of sadness in her eyes. Adrienne turned away, unsure of what to say. She didn't feel like telling Bailey the truth, but didn't want to seem mean if she didn't respond.

"Yeah, I really miss home," Adrienne lied. She had stepped up her lies from protecting magic to lying about frivolous things such as homesickness. Home was not much to miss; a neglectful mother and a father who ran away before his kid turned eight. There wasn't much to be sad about missing, except the really nice memory foam bed that Adrienne slept in. But even that didn't come from Adrienne's mom. It came from a neighbor who felt that Adrienne should have a better bed that some couch cushions with a fitted sheet over top and some really worn out blankets and pillows. Adrienne didn't miss home at all.

Ms. Tutweiller woke up shivering and a bit frightened. This would have not usually scared her; except for the fact that she had found out that one of her students was a witch. She woke up just in time to hear footsteps and movement in the room next door. Figuring that a student was getting ready, she thought nothing about it. Early-rising students were often on time and turned in homework assignments regularly, as well as projects. The small sound of hangers scraping against metal and then a closing door signaled to Ms. Tutweiller that she needed to get out of bed. She, too, got up and began to pull stuff out of her closet to wear. About to get dressed, there were voices next door.

"I thought I was going to go up to Sky Deck and get some fresh air before we're called down. You know that, Tammy. I'm an early riser." Ms. Tutweiller recognized the voice of Adrienne Dexter. Then she heard Tamantha Harris.

"Well, lately, you're also one to sleep in and stay up late. You've been in and out of that classroom and Ms. Tutweiller seems to be doing the same. What are you two doing?"

Sensing a mood change, Ms. Tutweiller got dressed quickly and was about to try to pull Adrienne out of the classroom when she heard Adrienne speak again.

""That's none of your business is it? You shouldn't be trying to intrude your way into people's lives. Their business does not become your property!"

A door slammed shut and footsteps were thudding down the hallway. Ms. Tutweiller was not sure who ran out of the room, so she grabbed a light coat and proceeded to sneak quietly down to the Sky Deck. Pretty sure that the student had gone to Sky Deck, Ms. Tutweiller headed in that direction.

She heard a voice speak; it was Adrienne's. Adrienne had made it out of the room and not exploded or let her magic expose herself. She had run out of the room in an attempt to calm herself down and found the most soothing spot she could find. Pride welled up inside Ms. Tutweiller and so did tears when she heard Adrienne say to a student that she did miss home. Adrienne had broken down in tears, crying about never wanting to go back home. It was sad that Adrienne felt she had to hide herself from everybody.

Ms. Tutweiller went back to her room and closed the door, leaning on it and sliding down it. Stress levels were running moderately high and she didn't like it. Mr. Moseby was tailing her almost everywhere, trying to catch her doing something wrong, so he could get her in trouble. Adrienne was having to deal with rude classmates, internal conflicts, and a secret that was dangerous, if found out by the wrong people. It felt that there were problems that had to be taken care of but they were too complex to actually do anything about. The magic lessons were supposed to be helping Adrienne, but they seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. It would have to be done; the lessons would keep going, even during the summer.

Adrienne sat down in a chair by the railing and stared out at the vast ocean. It looked like it was stationary, but knowing better; Adrienne knew that the ship was moving very fast. The waves crashed against the side of the ship, creating a relaxing mood that washed over Adrienne. She closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to be on a beach with such big waves. There were many pleasures to look forward to on the beach. Scoping for cute guys, getting a tan, listening to the waves, those were all things you could do when it was nice outside. Maybe go surfing… Adrienne snapped her eyes open. Someone was standing really close to her and she was annoyed that her perfect vision popped like a bubble.

"Hey, do you have to stand so close?" Adrienne asked, pretty sure that her mood was dripping from her words.

"Oh, sorry, I guess I just wanted to get a better view of the other ship that we're passing. I didn't mean to intrude on your moment of silence, Dexter," the boy said, clearly annoyed as well.

"Sorry I obstructed your view, I'll get out of your way now," Adrienne spat nastily and pushed him as she got up. Sky Deck wasn't so peaceful anymore because everyone had come down to get breakfast before class started. Silverware clanked, talking and laughing could be heard everywhere, and occasionally, you could hear a plate fall and break. It would shatter and a student would look horrified at what they had done while the ship personnel worked furiously to clean the mess up, and the other students laughed for a brief moment before returning to previous conversations.

Adrienne pushed her way through the crowd of people so she could get something to satisfy her hunger. The food on the ship was really good; from toast to pancakes, everything tasted great, made by gourmet chefs who did their best to make everyone happy. Once she got her food, Adrienne sat down at the bar where smoothies were served.

"Anything I can get you Miss?" a server asked, striding up smoothly.

"A banana-strawberry please, with a hint of lemon," Adrienne ordered perfectly and handed over two dollars and fifty cents.

"Looks great, thank you," Adrienne said and took a sip of the smoothie when it was placed in front of her. She kept drinking it and did so for about a minute before Shep came up behind her.

"Dexter the Rebellious, how are you?" Shep asked, scaring Adrienne, who took a huge sip of the frozen drink and developed brain freeze.

"Brain freeze…ugh…I'm okay, how are you?" Adrienne asked, wincing slightly. Shep sat down in the seat next to her.

"I'm pretty good; I got a good night's sleep, woke up early, got ready, came down here and caught a glimpse of that ship that everyone's still gawking at. But now, I'm sitting next to a very pretty someone who is quite a mystery to me," Shep answered in his deep voice. Adrienne smiled sheepishly, blown away by his comment.

"Hehe…um…um…hehehe. That's great! Wait, no it's not. Um…I gotta go…take care of some lesson plans with Ms. Tutweiller…you know, teacher's pet, smartest one in the class…hehe," Adrienne internally murdered herself for being so stupid. If she was the smartest one in the class, why couldn't she talk to a guy? Especially since he complimented her on her beauty and called her a mystery. He apparently like that in a girl, but Adrienne couldn't even talk to him if he complimented her. It seemed odd to her that most girls were like that. They had the guts to speak in front of their classmates but they couldn't talk to a guy.

Adrienne ran toward the biology lab and hoped that Shep wouldn't follow her.

Biology was Adrienne's first class of the day. Despite many lesson plans being made for the class, Adrienne had no idea what her teacher had in store for the class. No matter what it was, Adrienne decided she wouldn't let it bother her because she wanted to be a veterinarian, and nothing really made her squeamish. Not anymore, anyway. In her younger years, Adrienne would have gotten really sick from dissecting a squid, or looking at a worm. None of that bothered her now. But she still wouldn't touch a worm, those really were gross.

Walking into the classroom, Adrienne smelled something foul; like something had died and then been left to rot for years. The smell went away after a few minutes, and Adrienne sat down. She waited for the rest of the class to come, including Ms. Tutweiller. It was a bit strange that the teacher wasn't in the classroom, but then Adrienne saw Ms. Tutweiller digging through some stuff in the closet. She was trying to reach something and failed, the result was an avalanche of glass test tubes. The teacher looked out of the small window of the closet and motioned for Adrienne to come to the door.

"Adrienne, I need you to stand guard while I fix this really quickly," Ms. Tutweiller said in a slightly shaken voice. Adrienne understood the meaning of the word "fix" and obediently stood by the door. She wasn't planning to have the tubes fall down and shatter. As Ms. Tutweiller turned around, Adrienne saw glints of light reflect off of her head. The glass must have broken on her head too.

After a couple of minutes had passed, Adrienne glanced behind her to see Ms. Tutweiller now carrying the box that had formerly held the test tubes. Adrienne opened the door and let her out.

Now the students were coming in and some made faces at the same smell Adrienne noticed. Others made obnoxious noises and earned annoyed looks from Ms. Tutweiller. "Zack," she started, "you don't have to make faces and noises when you come into the classroom. Just sit down so we can begin."

"Are we going to deal with something dead?" Zack asked and many of the students perked up and listened intently.

Ms. Tutweiller rolled her eyes. "No we are not, Zack. We are going to be working with liver and potatoes. But before we start, I must warn you that the liver is a bit bloody so you might not want to fling it around the room. Now, if you'll each take one of these," Ms. Tutweiller set a stack of papers on her desk, "then you can begin. Everything you need to know is inside the packet."

Adrienne was first to grab a packet and immediately got to work. The packet called for three test tubes, all sorts of chemicals, a graduated cylinder, a test tube rack, a knife, liver, a potato, and other stuff that Adrienne got before starting the lab. The first thing she had to do was put two milliliters of hydrogen peroxide in each of the three test tubes. Then she had to put a piece of liver in one, a piece of potato in the other, and a pinch of manganese dioxide and the last. Walking over to the table—with the test tubes and rack—where each item needed for the experiment was located; Adrienne noted that a lot of students were huddled around the liver. They were trying to cut it, and gagged if it got too close to their washable hands. Fed up with waiting for the squeamish kids, Adrienne grabbed a paper plate, a knife, and picked up a piece of liver from the container. She set it on the plate and walked away, leaving the students staring after her in awe. They weren't going to touch the liver with their bare hands like Adrienne did. It just wasn't going to happen. Back at the table, Adrienne got to work.

She got the materials she needed, and did the experiment by herself. Her group members were off chatting with other groups, so Adrienne was going to do the experiment and not let them see the results or her answers to the questions. Working quickly, Adrienne finished the packet and all the experiments. Now all that was left was to clean up; she touched the liver again to clean it out of the mortar and pestle and used a small wire brush to clean out the test tubes. The tubes had potatoes and liver and peroxide and hydrochloric acid in them. They needed to be cleaned out to be put away. Once done with the clean up, Adrienne gave her packet to Ms. Tutweiller.

"Adrienne, did you work with your group at all?" Ms. Tutweiller asked.

"Well, to tell you the truth, no. My group decided that they would leave me to do the lab while they went off to chat with the other groups," Adrienne explained.

"Ah, I see. So you decided you wouldn't try to get your group back so you could do the lab by yourself?" Ms. Tutweiller gave off a tone of disappointment, but didn't elaborate or scold Adrienne for working alone.

"Well, duh. Besides, they never help and they leave me to do all the work while they copy my papers." Adrienne felt like she was being belittled, treated like a baby for working by herself. She wondered if Ms. Tutweiller was thinking if Adrienne was being bullied, so that's why she worked by herself and kept away from everyone. The thought led Adrienne to events like the Columbine incident, where a bullied student brought a gun to school and shot the school up. It was such a sad story to read and to be told.

"Since you did do the lab by yourself, I'll give you extra credit. But, I must stress upon you the importance of teamwork, and how it is essential it is to everyday life that you work with people, your peers," Ms. Tutweiller had a tone of complete disappointment. Adrienne sat in her seat and started to doodle in a notebook while waiting for the next class.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The Fire

Ms. Tutweiller made sure everyone had cleaned up their work areas, and then walked to her next class. Adrienne was the first one in the room, as always. Finding an opportunity to give Adrienne the potion before she had a chance to snap, Ms. Tutweiller seized the opportunity to give the potion to her. Her eyes looked glazed.

"Adrienne, I need you to come here for a minute. Hurry, before the other kids come in," Ms. Tutweiller said and hurriedly got the potion out. Pouring it into a thermos, she handed it to Adrienne. "That's for you, the potion I made last night. Drink it now, and hurry."

"Sure thing, Ms. Tutweiller," Adrienne said and drank some before putting the thermos in her backpack. She sat down and stared blankly at the wall. Ms. Tutweiller wondered what she was thinking. It probably had much to do with her mother, or her stress levels, but that wouldn't stop her from trying to do what she thought was best for herself. Before Ms. Tutweiller could do anything to get ready for her next class, Adrienne shouted, "Look! There's a huge fire outside!"

Ms. Tutweiller jumped to her feet and told Adrienne to get to the other side of the room. The potion was supposed to be working, but didn't seem to have kicked in yet. Adrienne should have been calmer now, so why was she breathing heavily? She was also sweating and her brown hair matted to her forehead. "Adrienne, I need you to stay here while I go get someone to put the fire out. Okay? Stay safe, and for goodness sake, keep calm!"

Adrienne walked slowly to her next class, knowing that she could cut her current pace in half and still be the first one in the room. Walking into the room, she slumped down into her chair. This continued until she saw a section of Ms. Tutweiller's auburn-colored hair. She sat up and stared outside, thinking about nothing in particular. There wasn't much to think about at the moment, not about classes, homework, or even why she was here at Seven Seas High.

Ms. Tutweiller set her stuff down on her desk and called Adrienne up to it. "That's for you, the potion I made last night. Drink it now, and hurry."

Adrienne drank some, noting that the potion tasted somewhat like vegemite. She shut the thermos that the potion was in and put it carefully in her backpack. While she would wait for about five minutes, she tried to think about something that would get her out of class. If only something could get her out of class…

That's when Adrienne saw the fire. It was big and had come out of nowhere, and Adrienne panicked. She wondered how it got there.

"Look! There's a huge fire outside!" Adrienne shouted and saw Ms. Tutweiller act quickly. She got Adrienne to get toward the back of the classroom, and ran outside to get help.

Adrienne sat, in the back of the classroom hyperventilating scared that something would happen. Ms. Tutweiller left the doors open and the fire was spreading inside the classroom. The fire was coming closer and closer until Adrienne's eyes rolled up in the back of her head, and she fainted.

"She's coming to. Everyone, step back and give her some space. Zack, that includes you too."

Adrienne's eyes fluttered open and she found herself looking at her classmates, and Ms. Tutweiller. Straining to sit up, Adrienne felt a sharp stab in her back, and let out a cry of pain. She fell back onto the bed, admitting defeat.

"Adri, are you okay?" Tammy asked, stepping up to the bed. Adrienne recognized her surroundings as the hospital.

Not able to speak, Adrienne nodded and even that hurt. She wondered what had happened. Worried faces, and then Zack's, were surrounding the bed. Adrienne didn't know what was going on. Almost as if answering her thoughts, Bailey said, "The fire came into the room, and you sort of fainted. Not like we would have done the same thing, but…"

Ms. Tutweiller shot a look at Bailey and Bailey's voice tapered off. She didn't say anything more, just stood by the edge of the bed.

"Well then, seeing as you won't need me anymore…" Zack said and ran off, ignoring a dirty look from Bailey. Cody mimicked the look. He didn't like Zack's ability to be insensitive, even at the worst possible time; like now. Ms. Tutweiller shifted uncomfortably in her standing position. Her worry showed clearly on her face. Adrienne wished he could say something, but she could only watch. Tears ran down her cheeks. She only wished she could say something, at least to tell Ms. Tutweiller she was alright.

Opening her mouth to speak, Adrienne closed it. There wasn't a way she would be able to answer and she was already getting drowsy. Her eyelids got heavier, until she finally closed her eyes. A dreamless sleep enveloped her, and she fell deep into it.

The tiredness lasted for the next week. Adrienne could only remember hazy visits from friends and Ms. Tutweiller. Blurred faces appeared in Adrienne's memory, and it hurt her head to strain to remember. Another week later, she was able to sit up and move around. She could now clearly remember her visits and recall what had been said. The pain had almost completely stopped, but remained in her lower back area. However, that didn't stop her from talking.

"I shudder every time I think of how much homework I've missed over the past couple of weeks. It's murder not being able to get up and do it. I hope I haven't missed too much…" Adrienne said to Cody one night. He came in to visit her after dinner. They talked about school, seeing as Cody couldn't talk about anything else. He was a bit strung up, having been given energy bars and candy by Zack. Cody was bouncing in his chair and trying to keep his involuntary fidgeting to a minimum.

"Cody, maybe you should go elsewhere? Maybe you should go to the gym to burn off most of the energy before curfew. You can't go to sleep now because you've put your body into a heart attack-like state. If you suddenly stop, you could die. Really, Cody, trust me."

Cody didn't say anything, but nodded and ran away, following Adrienne's advice. Adrienne laughed a bit upon his departure. Looking at the clock, Adrienne gasped at how late it was. She was about to get under the covers when Ms. Tutweiller came in.

"Knock knock," she said, and sat in a chair beside the bed. Adrienne guessed that Ms. Tutweiller was here to apologize again. "I'm so sorry, I should have been there. I would have been able to keep you awake…"

"You're fine," Adrienne interrupted, "You wouldn't have been able to do anything. Really, Ms. Tutweiller, all is forgiven."

"I'm glad you're okay," Ms. Tutweiller said and looked at the floor.

"Ms. Tutweiller? I think I know how the fire started," Adrienne said, remembering it vividly.

"Go on."

"Well, I was sitting in my desk after I drank the 'you-know-what', and I was wondering what could get me out of class. I don't know how, but I think I started the fire. I really think I did," Adrienne recalled the day clearly. It scared her that she had come to this conclusion, but it was that or Spontaneous Combustion.

Ms. Tutweiller got very quiet, and didn't say anything for a few minutes. When this happened, Adrienne wished she would say something. An eerie silence enveloped the room, and it pushed itself against Adri's head until she couldn't take it.

"Say something will you!" Adrienne broke the silence with an annoyed cry.

"I………" Ms. Tutweiller said nothing and continued to stare at the floor. When a few more minutes had passed, she got up and left, leaving Adrienne alone in her bed, with another silence. It no longer felt awkward and eerie.

Adrienne drifted off into sleep as she had for the past couple of weeks.

It was after dinner on Sky Deck. Cody Martin had been given something by his twin brother Zack, and was now extremely hyper. He half waddled and ran in the general direction of the hospital, where Adri was located. Ms. Tutweiller smirked and ordered another smoothie, this time kiwi with a hint of strawberry. She drowned her problems in fruit, and it still didn't solve anything, just gave her a sweet tooth whenever something came up.

Mr. Moseby was telling the kids that they needed to be in their dorms, but that was a result of his always cranky disposition. Curfew wasn't for another few hours. The students were allowed to roam until then. Ms. Tutweiller turned around and re-focused her attention on the smoothie sitting in front of her. As it was a small, it was gone fairly quickly, and a slightly distressed teacher shoved her hair out of her face and went to visit a student in the hospital.

When she got there, Cody was coming out and running toward the gym, muttering about heart attacks. She entered Adrienne's room to see her looking quite amused.

"Knock knock," Ms. Tutweiller said and shut the door behind her. Adrienne looked tired, and the teacher needed to apologize. Again. For possibly the fifth time. "I'm so sorry, I should have been there. I would have been able to keep you awake…"

Adrienne looked a bit annoyed that her teacher was apologizing so many times about what happened. It wasn't everyday that a girl fainted when fire almost burned her. Her green eyes reflected a tired teenager who wanted some sleep. Ms. Tutweiller sat down in the chair next to Adrienne's bed. She didn't like that Adrienne was in here, especially when she could have helped her.

After a few words were exchanged, Adrienne switched to a different topic. Her face showed her worry as she was about to share something that might have scared her. Adrienne told Ms. Tutweiller about the fire and how she thought she might have started it. Ms. Tutweiller sat in silence, completely shocked.

How could a fifteen year-old girl start a fire with just her mind? But they never figured out how the fire got started in the first place, they called it "spontaneous combustion" and never investigated the matter any further. Moments of tense, uncomfortable silence permeated the room until Adrienne burst out, "Say something will you!"

Ms. Tutweiller snapped her head up at the girl, not sure how to respond. "I…………" was Ms. Tutweiller's response before she left the room. The girl was very powerful. Her magic had caused a fire, but she used her mind to envision it. Even if Adrienne didn't know it, she was very dangerous. Something had to be done. She hoped Adrienne wouldn't be mad.

Adrienne heard voices, and bolted upright in bed, not thinking that it might hurt her back. She ignored the stinging and tried to look around in the darkness. The voices continued, and showed no sign of stopping. Disturbed, Adrienne turned on her light, only to see nothing. Wide-eyed and scared, Adrienne ducked under her covers and began to cry. She didn't know what was wrong with herself lately; she started a fire, and she was hearing voices. Adrienne coaxed herself into sleep, but her face took on the look of someone cringing at pain. Her face never relaxed as silent tears ran down her face.


	7. Chapter 7

In the morning, Adrienne woke up not hearing anything. She concluded that it was her imagining things and tried to get out of the bed she had been in for the past two weeks. Successful, Adrienne sought out a nurse. When she found one, the nurse was shocked that Adrienne could walk on her own without any help. Adrienne had been confined to a bed for two weeks.

"I guess you could go, but we will have to have someone check in on you to make sure you're doing alright. It's precautionary, as your recovery has happened most unexpectedly. I will send for someone now," the nurse said, who Adrienne believed was named Jenny, and left to find someone. Adrienne stood in place and thought about all of the schoolwork she missed, and shuddered. Never before had she missed so much work. Never. Ever. In her entire life.

"Adrienne, are you okay?" Tammy tackled Adrienne and hugged her fiercely. Adrienne stumbled back, and returned the hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm okay now, and what I need to do is…" Adrienne started then tapered off, feeling a shiver run down her spine.

"Adrienne, are you worried about the work you missed? You're fine, I'm sure Ms. Tutweiller gave you no credit so it won't count against you. Really, you're probably taken care of," Tammy assured Adri, who doubted her friend's words. Ms. Tutweiller would want her to catch up.

"What would I do exactly" Ms. Tutweiller appeared behind Tammy, who shrieked and jumped violently, causing herself to fall down. Adrienne tried to hide her laugh but could not suppress it. She laughed hard and her shoulders shook with each laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry Tammy; I didn't know I would startle you like that. Are you okay?"

Tammy got up laughing with Adrienne. "Yeah, I'm fine. That was really funny to you wasn't it?" Tammy directed the question at Adri and Ms. Tutweiller, who both had huge grins. Adrienne snickered.

"Ms. Tutweiller, what are you doing down here? You have," Adrienne glanced at a clock, "math right now, and I'm supposed to be there, too."

"A nurse came into the classroom to talk to me and Tammy ran out, so really I was following her. I'll tell you what I need to tell you later. When I got down here, Tammy was saying something about me so I surprised her, with results not intended," Ms. Tutweiller smiled at Tammy as she said this. Adrienne smiled too. It seemed like a perfect time for it. Everyone was happy, except an angry Mr. Moseby making his way through the hallway.

"Why don't you two hurry up to class?" Ms. Tutweiller said and turned to face Mr. Moseby. Adrienne and Tammy ran down the hallway and tried not to look panicked. Mr. Moseby looked incredibly angry, and Ms. Tutweiller again was going to feel his wrath. It wasn't fair.

Halfway through the corridor, Adri stopped and looked back. The girls were out of earshot, but not out of sight. Ms. Tutweiller looked miserable standing there being yelled at. Adrienne thought up a brilliant plan; she was going to help her teacher out.

"Tammy, I need you to stand here and tell me if anyone is coming. In other words, guard me. I'm going to help Ms. Tutweiller. But whatever you do, don't _turn around_!" Adrienne whipped out her wand when Tammy's back was turned. According to a book Adri read, you could do spells without incantations, and you didn't need to say anything. All you needed to do was think hard on what you wanted the spell to do, and it would happen. Adrienne was about to try her luck.

_Okay, Adrienne, think. The book said you needed to concentrate really hard. So think of what you want the spell to do. Mr. Moseby needs to be happier. That's what the spell will do! And he'll give her a raise! He'll stay off her back and she'll not be so miserable. _Adrienne concentrated and visualized what would happen, and waved her wand. The spell flew and hit Mr. Moseby in the back. He didn't notice, but Adrienne wasn't going to stand around to find out what happened. She grabbed Tammy and ran. Tammy laughed nervously as the girls took off at top speed. Adrienne hoped they wouldn't get caught and most of all, Adrienne wanted Ms. Tutweiller not to figure out Mr. Moseby's sudden mood change. It would save an awkward moment of explanation. If Ms. Tutweiller did find out, then Adri would have to explain what she did. Deep down, Adrienne knew that Ms. Tutweiller wouldn't mind, but would probably be really happy that Adrienne was gaining control of her magic.

"What was that? You shouldn't have done that. You scared me, so what could have happened if I fell?" Tammy asked, not making much sense to Adrienne at first. A bit slow on understanding her friend's words, Adrienne shrugged. She wasn't about to blow her secret. Not in this lifetime, anyway.

"I don't know, but it wouldn't have been pretty. I would have said that I was the one who…" Adrienne stopped when she realized that she almost said what she had done. That wouldn't have been pretty either. Adrienne dropped the conversation and refused to answer any of Tammy's questions about the matter.

Later that day, Adrienne was reading a book for her English class. It was a book that she had picked out, for her own pleasure. That was the assignment: read ten hours for pleasure. Adrienne had a small problem when it came to reading slowly. She devoured books as fast as she received them. To still end up reading the assigned hours, Adrienne picked out five lengthy books from her own collection of books, and she checked out seven smaller books. Her own books she would read last, because she could read slower since she had already read them. Tammy left Adrienne alone during the time Adri was reading, because Adrienne sometimes got a temper when interrupted. It was better that way, because Adri preferred to read in silence and not have to stop reading—for anything. It was simply annoying. The silence gave Adrienne comfort, and it gave Tammy some time to catch up on late work and finish current work.

"Adrienne, I know you don't like to be interrupted, but there's something I need to talk to you about," Tammy said, sounding apologetic. Adrienne reluctantly put her book down, and stared at her friend.

"Okay, shoot."

"Well, I was going through your trunk, to find that really cute belt that you said I could borrow, and I kinda found something that I wanted to ask you about," Tammy pulled one of Adrienne's heavy magic books from under her bed and let it fall onto Adrienne's bed with a thunk. Adrienne suddenly realized where this was leading and looked with wide eyes between Tammy and the book.

"What about it?" Adrienne asked, trying to pull her face into one that didn't look like fear. Tammy had already noticed, and looked blankly at her friend.

"Adrienne, I'm not going to pretend I didn't find this book. Or the others, for that matter—but I want some shred of truth out of you. But I do have one thing to say: I want to be on a need to know basis only. Tell me about the book, but other than that, don't tell me anything," Tammy said and sat down on her bed, staring at Adrienne for an explanation. Adrienne felt a lump rise in her throat, and felt her breathing stop. But this was it, this was the moment Adri had been dreading all year. The news she couldn't bear to tell anyone. The current situation wouldn't allow her to skip out on this one important detail. Adrienne silently prepared her words for a need-to-know-basis only. It wasn't going to be easy, but it needed to be done.

"Well… the truth is…I…I'm a…" Adrienne stumbled over words. This was harder than she thought possible. She took a deep breath and started again. "What you need to know is—" Adrienne was interrupted by the door flying open and crashing into the wall behind it. A picture fell to the floor and glass shattered, spraying the room two feet in front of it. Tammy and Adrienne covered their heads and Adrienne lifted hers to see a very angry Ms. Tutweiller in the room.

"What're you doing here Ms. Tutweiller? I thought you were downstairs with Mr. Moseby. Am I wrong?" Adrienne said meekly. She was a bit scared. Ms. Tutweiller looked really angry at something. The teacher's eyes searched the room and landed upon the book out in the open. Then they fell upon the look on Adri's face. Her eyes went from angry to understanding instantly.

"She found out?"

Adrienne nodded and looked at Tammy. Tammy looked confused. "What's going on here?" Tammy asked.

"Tammy, I know you didn't mean to find that book. The truth is…I'm a witch," Adrienne said, and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Adrienne, you can't say things like that about yourself! It's not good for your self-esteem," Tammy didn't grasp the concept immediately.

"I'm not talking about that. Ms. Tutweiller, will you shut the door? I'll clean up the broken glass," Adrienne came up with a plan on the spot. Ms. Tutweiller seemed to understand the plan. Stuffed in her sock, Adrienne had a hard time getting her wand out, but retrieved it and faced Ms. Tutweiller who was snickering. Ms. Tutweiller waved her hand at the door, and it closed itself. Tammy's eyes widened. Adrienne waved her wand at the mess on the floor, and the glass returned to the frame. There wasn't a chip in the glass. Then Adrienne used a levitation spell to lift the picture frame back onto the wall. Ms. Tutweiller looked proud.

Tammy looked from Adri to Ms. Tutweiller, with a look of fear and shock. When Tammy started shaking her head, Adrienne nodded. It appeared that Tammy didn't want to believe what had just happened, but had to face the fact that it did.

"Adri…Ms. Tutweiller? This… this is too much… No! I don't believe it! You're magicians! This isn't possible!" Tammy stammered.

"Tammy, it's true. We," Adrienne pointed between her and Ms. Tutweiller, "are witches, and we've hidden that; until now, when you've found out."

Tammy looked back at the book still lying on Adrienne's bed. Adrienne threw a look at Ms. Tutweiller, hoping to get her attention. "Do you think I should have magically hidden the books?" Adri asked.

Ms. Tutweiller took a minute to think before responding. "Adrienne, I don't think you could have prevented your roommate from finding out. But hiding the books with magic would be a good idea. It would keep them from accidentally showing up again. Well then, Adrienne, Tammy, I must be going. Oh, and Adrienne, lessons tonight. Same time," Ms. Tutweiller said and left the room, leaving Adrienne and Tammy alone in an awkward silence.

Neither girl said a word to another and soon, both were in bed. The night was a long one for Adrienne, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

Ms. Tutweiller was in her bedroom sleeping. She turned over onto her back and woke up. A nightmare clogged her dream. It would have woken her and Adrienne up, seeing as they were the only ones who would get it. But then again, Tammy might have gotten it, if she was the one who dreamt it. Who would've known that Tamantha Harris would be the first one to figure out about the whole world of magic?

Another thought struck her. Adrienne hadn't showed up for her lesson that night. She had skipped it. But was that her moving around in the hallway? The teacher got up to investigate. Ms. Tutweiller had to wait for whoever was there to go so she could open her door and not be detected. An urge to find out who was roaming the ship so early struck Ms. Tutweiller.

She carefully opened her door, and looked in both directions to see if anyone was coming. Deciding it was okay to move, Ms. Tutweiller tiptoed into the hallway and closed her door. Making her way toward where the person (possibly Adrienne) was headed, Ms. Tutweiller was careful not to let the floor squeak or creak. Just as she was about to enter the balcony to Sky Deck, a stick-like object was thrust into her face. She almost screamed, but had more composure than that.

"Why are you following me? You're not my mother; you don't need to check on me every second of every day. I'm fine!" Adrienne stepped out from behind a plant. Her words were barely more than a whisper. She sounded frustrated and annoyed. Ms. Tutweiller shoved the wand aside.

"Students aren't allowed out of their dorms past curfew. If you were to have been caught by anyone but me, you would have gotten a worse punishment!"

"You mean you're going to give me a punishment? You're not my mom! You don't own me, and you follow me everywhere I go. You watch me like a hawk!" Adrienne hissed. She was visibly upset now. She turned around and fled, leaving Ms Tutweiller alone. The teacher ran after the girl, and was surprised to see that Adrienne had levitated a few objects threateningly in the air beside her. The objects flew at Ms. Tutweiller one by one, but they were easily deflected with more powerful magic. A crash was heard as each object was blown out of the way by Ms. Tutweiller. Adrienne kept firing tables, plants, chairs, cups. It didn't look like she cared about exposing her secret.

"ADRIENNE STOP!" Ms. Tutweiller yelled ad it was enough to startle Adrienne enough to knock her down with a spell. She must have been thinking about something that angered her and she had to have not taken her calming potion. Adrienne was out of control right now, and before she could do any more damage, Ms. Tutweiller conjured a mug of the potion and forced Adrienne to drink it. The effects were instantaneous, and Adrienne stopped squirming and fighting. She was finally calm.

"Adrienne, you aren't going to class today, you're staying in your dorm in your bed—the whole day. You aren't going to get up. You've also earned yourself a few dosages of the potion each day. Let's get you back where you should be," Ms. Tutweiller said and helped Adrienne up. She felt a bit tired running after her student so early in the morning, and decided she would take a day off too. Hopefully people wouldn't think that she was with Adrienne, even though she would be.

Back in her dorm, Adrienne fell onto her bed and began to sleep peacefully. That was a good thing after what just happened. Ms. Tutweiller closed the door, trying not to wake either Adrienne or Tammy. She went next door to her room and collapsed in her bean-bag chair. That was a stressful way to wake up in the morning…

Adrienne remembered being forced to drink the calming potion. The stuff tasted nasty, and then she was being helped up by Ms. Tutweiller. Faintly, she remembered why she was on the ground. Ms. Tutweiller must have fired a stunning spell. She also remembered being told that she would be drinking the potion every day. Sleep soon overcame her, and she was calm.

A dream had nestled itself in her subconscious. Adrienne was walking in a hallway, the most powerful witch in the world. Then, out of nowhere, was a challenger. The competition had gleaming red eyes and auburn hair, but a face could not be seen, because there was a mask. Spell after spell was fired and Adrienne put all of her strength into defeating her challenger. At some point, Adrienne knocked down her opponent and the mask flew off. Adrienne was going to finish off her opponent when she saw that her opponent was Ms. Tutweiller.

Ms. Tutweiller laughed a maniacal, evil laugh. "Aren't you going to _kill_ me?" She asked putting emphasis on the word _kill_. Adrienne shook her head and turned around, tears burning in her eyes. She didn't know that Ms. Tutweiller stood up behind her, holding a knife. Crying, Adrienne also didn't know that Ms. Tutweiller had stabbed her in the back until pain surged through her body. It was then that Adrienne woke up.

"NO!" Adrienne screamed and bolted upright in her bed. Tears were on the verge of falling, and Adrienne let them. She also knew that she felt pain; her arms and legs were numb, and a centralized pain vibrated in her lower back. Adrienne screamed again when the door crashed open.

"What's going on!?!" Ms. Tutweiller demanded. Her eyes fell on Adrienne's tear-stained face.

Adrienne was clutching her lower back and tears spilled down her cheeks, some of her hair getting wet; her hair matted itself to her face. The drier part of her hair was disheveled, and she looked very tired. Her sleep was disturbed again.

Ms. Tutweiller quickly walked over to the bed and sat down beside it. "What's wrong, Adrienne?" she asked.

"There was… you were evil… you said…I was…" Adrienne choked on words as she cried harder. Her words were gibberish and hard to understand; Ms. Tutweiller looked confused. She patted Adrienne's hand and Adrienne felt somewhat better, but couldn't fight the pain.

"So…much…pain…" Adrienne gasped and let out a moan as her back let another wave of pain travel through her body. Ms. Tutweiller's grip on Adrienne's hand tightened. Adrienne clutched her back tighter and fell back onto her bed.

"What happened?" Ms. Tutweiller pressed on.

"You… you were evil and you challenged me, and I fought you, and then you fell down and the mask fell off and you stabbed me in the back!" Adrienne's head disappeared under her blankets. Her back hurt for some reason, and she was sobbing. She couldn't tell whether Ms. Tutweiller was there or not, she was crying too hard. Adrienne was under the covers trying not to close her eyes in case the horrible dream would come back to haunt her. What freaked her out even more was the fact that the voices were back and she could distinctly hear Ms. Tutweiller's voice. It scared her and she kicked her blankets off.

"What did you say?" Adrienne asked.

"I didn't say anything, are you okay?" Ms. Tutweiller replied, looking even more confused.

"You said something. You were saying something about my losing sleep over this. Are you sure you didn't say anything?" Adrienne tilted her head to the side, trying to understand what was going on.

"Adrienne, I'm absolutely sure I didn't—oh my," Ms. Tutweiller interrupted herself.

"What is it?"

"Adrienne, I didn't say that. I thought it. You heard my thoughts? But…that's impossible."

"Well, it can't be absolutely impossible because I heard you thoughts. Why is everything getting so complicated?" Adrienne ignored the pain in her back and fell backwards onto her bed. She pulled her blankets over her head.

"You can't hide under the covers for long, Adrienne," Ms. Tutweiller said and tried to yank the blankets back.

"Yes, I can. I'll come out only when things get better," Adrienne said stubbornly and managed to keep the blankets on. She heard Ms. Tutweiller get up and leave, but didn't hear any of her thoughts. Adri only heard other people's voices.

A few hours later, Adrienne felt incredibly hungry, and decided to get up and get something to eat. Glancing at the clock, Adrienne made a guess as to what meal the kitchen staff could serve her. It was around lunchtime. After lunch was US History, unless that changed, but Adrienne doubted the schedule changed.

She made her way down to Sky Deck and observed that people weren't eating. There was a big buffet, but plates of food sat untouched in front of people happily chatting away. Adrienne wondered what was wrong with the food. As soon as she reached the buffet, she stopped.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you," said a familiar voice.

Adrienne turned around to face Shep. "And why not?"

"One of those twins got sick and then London and Bailey; a whole bunch of people got sick, and we don't need to have you sent down to be checked out either," Shep said, smiling as he took a plate out of Adrienne's hand.

"Why, where'd they go?" Adrienne asked, taking the plate back with a returning smile.

"You know, I bet they're testing the kids who got sick—"

"What for?"

"To see if they can find a cure for sea sickness and other diseases."

"Like what?" Adrienne challenged. A devilish smile crossed her face.

"Well, you know that terrible disease where girls can't tell a guy that they like him, and the other way around. The feeling of being rejected," Shep answered and took the plate from Adri again.

Adrienne felt butterflies in her stomach. Shep was really cute, and Adri had a sneaking suspicion that he liked her, but he was popular, and she was the weird, mysterious girl that nobody really liked. She had a thought that maybe it was a dare that he had taken and that's why he was talking to her, but Adri shoved it out of her head.

"I'll take my chance with the laboratory tests," Adrienne said, letting another devilish smile cross her face. She took the plate back from him teasingly and started piling small bits of food on it.

"Whatever you say, Dexter the Rebellious," he said, and walked away smiling. Adrienne internally congratulated herself on playing it cool and not saying something stupid. She decided to get some ice cream later if she didn't need to be examined for food poisoning.

Adrienne looked up at the sky as she sat down at a table by herself. There weren't any clouds, so the horizon couldn't easily be made out. It looked really neat, but Adrienne focused her attention on the so-called poisoned food. After a bite or two, Adri deemed the food non-poisonous. It wasn't one of the best meals on board the ship, but it didn't taste horrendous.

"Hey, you finally wake up Sleeping Beauty?" Tammy sat down next to Adri with an mp3 player in hand.

"Yeah, what're you listening to?" Adrienne asked, trying to see the playlist.

Tammy showed it to her. "Idina Menzel. Her newest album I Stand. It's really good. Every song is so neat; I really wish I could see her in concert. That would be the best day of my life."

Adrienne laughed. "What other artists do you have on there?"

"Rent, Legally Blonde the Musical, Wicked, Britney Spears, Rihanna, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, Jonas Brothers, some "unknown" albums that it didn't find info for, Maroon 5, Ashlee Simpson, the B52s, Black Eyed Peas, Carrie Underwood, Good Charlotte, Green Day, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Jewel, Lilix, Lindsay Lohan, Selena Gomez, Miranda Cosgrove, My Chemical Romance, Rockwell, Lisa Lauren Smith, and Taylor Swift. Yeah, I got lots of songs."

Adrienne looked at her friend incredulously. Either she listed the artists on her mp3 player from looking at it, or she listed the artists from off the top of her head. Tammy looked at Adrienne's bemused expression.

"Did you list all of those artists off the top of your head?" Adrienne asked.

"Some of them, yeah, but I had the list of them pulled up," Tammy said, and turned up her music. All Adrienne could hear was the music Tammy was listening to, but it sounded strange. Could Adrienne be listening to it from inside Tammy's head? It didn't seem possible. There was so much Adrienne needed to figure out about herself, this was one of the things she needed to control and find out more about.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A/N: Sorry about the late update duckies! You know how it goes, all the school work and something crazy happens or you don't have time…I think it would be really cool if the point of view shifted from third person to first. I will include both Adrienne and Ms. Tutweiller in this, and I hope it brings more entertainment and interest into the story. Read and review! Tell me how to make it better, or tell me how good I am, either way, I'm fine. ******

I woke up again from another nightmare, but I didn't feel any pain. It was only a memory that tingled faintly on my back. Ms. Tutweiller didn't really know about that night, and I didn't know what had set me off that I was going to attack her. Something made me do it. The thought scared me, so I pushed it out of my head. A bit dizzy since I woke up at three in the morning, I let myself fall back onto my bed, exhausted. My hunger was not yet dominating my stomach, so I ignored it and tried to get back to sleep. It took a few tries to close my eyes and ignore the quiet pounding against my head.

My bed creaked as I turned over, trying to get more comfortable. Tammy stirred some but didn't wake. I was hoping she wouldn't, but if she did, we could talk until we got back to sleep. I finally got into a comfortable position and went back to sleep, and a dream took over my subconscious.

The morning held a bright sunlight and two twin boys chatting with Tammy. They were kind of loud. I rubbed my eyes sleepily and sat up, letting my vision blur and slowly re-focus. Zack, Cody, and Tammy were in the room talking about something I didn't want any part in: school. They were talking about Ms. Tutweiller and her way of teaching and then they moved on to the other teachers on the ship.

"What do you think, Adri? Do you think Ms. Tutweiller is a bit crazy?" Tammy asked.

I shook my head; I wanted no partake in this conversation. "I am not on either side of this debate, I am neutral. There is no way you are getting me into this."

Zack shook his head in disappointment. Apparently, I was supposed to say yes, but that would be engaging in the conversation I wanted no part of. I had also just woken up and I was ready for breakfast. My energy was going to be put to getting downstairs, away from these goons, and to the breakfast buffet. I thought of Shep.

Sky Deck looked unusually empty but nobody warned me not to go down until I heard, "Dexter the Rebellious!" I whipped my head around to see Shep running full speed at me. He looked like he had gained too much momentum until he knocked into me. We both fell over, and he started laughing.

"Why are you laughing? You just tackled me to the floor," I asked, unsure of his finding the situation laugh-worthy.

"I got too much speed. That kind of thing usually happens in movies, not here. And usually, the girl he knocks over isn't as pretty as you are," Shep had managed to make the moment romantic. He leaned towards me, and we were quickly in a lip-lock that seemed like it was lasting forever. I was in everlasting bliss. My life could be like this forever. I could live with that. I heard something and ignored it at first, but when I heard a different sound, I had to look up.

Ms. Tutweiller was standing there, and had a look of guilt on her face, so I knew she had seen me kiss Shep. How much else she had seen I didn't know until I heard her thoughts. Then I knew she had seen everything. That angered me. I was starting to get my wand out, ready to attack. I was furious. The only problem that was present was that my wand was stuck in my pocket.

It was Saturday, and I was getting ready to head out for some light reading. The silence was short-lived because I could hear voices next door. They were pretty funny and then I heard the door to that room open and close. The footsteps that followed were pretty quiet, so I decided I would investigate. The footsteps fell silent, and I opened my door and peeked outside. Nobody was there, but I followed the direction I assumed the person was headed. Sky Deck came into view, and Adrienne Dexter. She was about to step downstairs when I heard a loud, "Dexter the Rebellious!"

A boy named Shep came into view and her tackled Adrienne to the floor. I realized that something was going to happen, so I hid behind a plant and watched them exchange a few words. A feeling of excitement made me shiver as I watched Shep lean towards Adrienne. I looked away, and began to walk in that direction. Neither of the teenagers looked up but then I heard Adrienne gasp. That stopped me mid-step.

"Ms. Tutweiller, is that you?" I turned around and smiled. "I cannot believe this; you've been spying on me. That makes me really—UGH!"

Adrienne started to reach for something in her pocket, and I caught a glimpse of it before she could get it all the way out. "Adrienne don't you dare!"

"Why shouldn't I? More people will find out sooner or later, and it won't matter to you."

"Adrienne, keep it in your pocket," I warned, ready to use magic against her. Shep had slowly crept away, and I didn't worry about him, just Adrienne. "You don't want to do this Adrienne, just keep the wand in your pocket."

The girl whipped out her wand and flicked it; the plant I had stood behind came rushing towards me. I easily deflected it with my own wand, and Adrienne showed her dislike. She became really angry, throwing tables, chairs, plants, and even water at me. I didn't respond, just made sure none of the stuff hit me. Adrienne was angrier than this morning.

More objects hurtled toward me and one table hit me. The pain stabbed me in a million places at once. I could tell that Adrienne was really mad and didn't want me to survive her rampage. She didn't care that her secret was going to be exposed if she kept it up.

"_Synexo!_" I shouted and the spell hit her in the chest. She stumbled backwards and fired a spell I had never seen before. It came and hit me, and I fell back. Another chair hurtled toward me and I didn't block it. Adrienne had disarmed me. She advanced on me, but I couldn't get up. I was pinned down by pain and fear.

I realized again that Adrienne was really powerful, and could really hurt me if she wanted to. She had taught herself way more spells than I could have taught her, and it occurred to me that I might not know some, if any of the spells she could use. I had only taught her a fair few. Not much to battle with. She had taught herself more, because I knew I didn't teach her those spells.

"You keep getting on my nerves, again and again. This time, you won't. Nobody is going to know and you're going to be out of my way. I can do as I please and nobody will stop me! Not even you," Adrienne said darkly. A thought struck me just then.

"Adrienne, you don't want to do this. You don't, do you hear me? Remember your dream? I won't really hurt you, but I'm not your competition. You don't want to kill me," I tried to reason with the crazed student. She lifted her wand higher. It hung menacingly in her hand, ready to deal out a fatal spell.

"You are going to die now," her voice dropped into an even darker tone. Her eyes were glowing with anger, and I knew something had to be done, because she was going to be lost in her anger forever if I didn't.

"Adrienne!" Tamantha rushed over to me, and looked up at Adrienne with fear. Adrienne smiled and let out a scarily evil laugh. Chills ran down my spine. She turned her wand on Tammy and blasted her out of the way. Tammy slumped on the floor, unconscious. I couldn't do anything, just lie down and watch Adrienne avert her attention back to me.

"You don't want to do this," I repeated, trying to get through to her.

"Adrienne may not want to, but I do," a voice from behind me made me whip my head around. Shep was standing there, and he too, held a wand. I was confused at first, but then understood. A new wave of pain crashed over me, and I screamed. My hands and arms shook as I tried to sit up. Some spell held me down.

"Shep, why would you do this?" I choked out.

"Because you've flunked me for three years now! This boat wasn't even here and when it was built, I thought I could get away from you. No, you came onto the boat to teach. Now I've had it. Adrienne is almost gone, and I control her every move. You can't do anything now," Shep started to move toward me.

"Adrienne, you don't have to let him get into your head!" I tried hopelessly.

"She can't hear you. Remember? I _own _her now. She'll do everything for me, and nothing will stop me." I moved back with surprising speed. My wand was on the other side of the room, and I remembered that I could do magic better without it. My instinct to survive the attacks kicked in.

I got up slowly and watched Shep contemplate the situation. "I tried to kill you this morning, but you threw the possession curse off my little dummy here," Shep indicated Adrienne. "You were incredibly lucky. But I won't fail again. You will die this time and nobody can save you."

My hands ached with energy. I was ready to fire spell after spell and have one hit my enemy. He would be taken down, and I could save both my life, and Adrienne's. If only I could get to her. I needed to bring Shep down first.

I let a surge of power and fired a blasting curse at Shep. He avoided it and gave me an angry sneer. With a flick of his wand, Adrienne launched spells at me. With great energy, I succeeded in knocking her down, and then I turned to face Shep.

He stared at me in disbelief, and fired a curse at me. I shot one back. The battle became intense as I fell into a sort of rhythm—block, fire, breathe, block fire, and breathe. I didn't pay much attention to much as I went into an offensive frenzy. I shot spell after spell of curses, disarming spells, hexes, and many more. He barely had time to block and tried to switch to another shielding spell. He tried, but then failed. Shep fell to the ground, writhing in pain. I could hear my heartbeat in my head.

I sat down after shooting a net at Shep. Adrienne groaned and turned over on her back. She slowly sat up and looked around at the destroyed Sky Deck. A perplexed look crossed her face. "What happened here?" Adrienne asked.

"You were possessed by Shep and we all got into a battle. He's over there," I pointed and wiped blood off of my forehead. Adrienne saw this and became concerned.

"Are you alright? You're bleeding, Ms. Tutweiller. Really badly. You need to get to a hospital," Adrienne said and tried to pull me to my feet. I resisted, wanting to rest.

"I'm fine, really, Adrienne I am. I just…need rest. Honestly, I'm fine," I tried to assure her. She decided she didn't believe me. Her face took on a look of disbelief.

"No, you're not. Look at you! You're a mess. And I don't think your foot is supposed to bend that way," She gestured at my foot, which was clearly broken. I gaped at it, not realizing at first that my foot was broken. I was a mess.

I last remembered wanting to really hurt my teacher. My wand stuck in my pocket, Shep snuck away. I don't really remember what happened after that.

When I sat up with pained difficulty, I saw Ms. Tutweiller on the ground. The Sky Deck looked like it had just gone through a war. I didn't know what had happened. My brain jumped to all sorts of conclusions. I wasn't sure what to do.

"What happened here?" I asked, because I was confused. Also because it seemed like nobody heard. Why hadn't anyone heard what happened here?

She explained to me in clear detail. I was shocked at what she told me. Shep did this? He couldn't have. He kissed me! Why would he try to use me to get to Ms. Tutweiller? Then she told me why. Not wanting to think about it, I looked at Ms. Tutweiller on the floor.

"Are you alright? You're bleeding, Ms. Tutweiller. Really badly. You need to get to a hospital," I said and tried to pull her up. When she refused, I let out an annoyed sigh. "No, you're not. Look at you! You're a mess. And I don't think your foot is supposed to bend that way," I gestured toward her foot, which looked like it was broken when she said she was fine and refused to get up.

"I'm fine, Adrienne, really. All I need is rest. Seriously, you don't know what happened and you're freaking out more than I am," she sad that she needed rest again. I believed her, but she needed to get rest at a hospital. And she was right about me freaking out, but I needed to. I was turning my confusion into shock and I was spazing out.

"You're sure? Are you really okay?" I asked again, hoping she would say no so I could clean up and get some help.

"Yes, Adrienne, I'm fine," she said again. I was starting to get frustrated with her.

I turned away and started to fix everything by magic. All of the chairs, tables, fake plants, the railing, I fixed them. They were all in such terrible condition, but I had to try. My plan was simple: I had no plan. My goal was to clean Sky Deck up so I could call for some help.

I definitely had a few broken bones; I could feel them. This wasn't very good. Now I felt the immense pain as I tried to clean up the disaster zone. When I had finally finished, Ms. Tutweiller was sleeping on the floor. I dragged her to a spot close to the stairs. A plan quickly formed in my head and I was quick to execute it.

"Stay here, and don't move. At all, do you hear me?" I stuck my wand in her face and waited for her to nod before I left. I was running really fast and then I hit Mr. Moseby. It hurt, because he was so big. He didn't seem very happy, but that wasn't unusual. He was always angry.

"What are you doing out of your room at this early hour, Miss Dexter?" He asked, trying not to scare me. Mr. Moseby was failing at that.

"I…I…uh…I was getting help," I managed to stammer. "For Ms. Tutweiller—she fell down the stairs."

"Are you sure? That can't be good. I'll get someone, and you stay here," Mr. Moseby said, shaking my shoulders. When he stopped, they hurt a little because his grip was tight.

I slowly made my way back down to my teacher, who looked like she had fallen asleep on the stairs. Shaking my head, I sat down on the step just above her head. She snored some, but I was glad that she hadn't moved. Shep must've really tired her out. He had disappeared somewhere, and I felt worried.

It seemed like forever, but Mr. Moseby finally arrived with a doctor. I quickly moved out of the way so the doctor could get to Ms. Tutweiller faster. She's gonna be okay, I told myself. At some point, I realized that I still had to get some breakfast, even though Ms. Tutweiller had been cleared off the stairs. I just sat there, staring into space. I reluctantly got up and switched to autopilot for the rest of the day.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello again Duckies! Sorry the last chapter wasn't very long, but this one will be longer. I promise. *wink wink* Anyways, enjoy the story because it will probably end soon. But don't worry, because there will be a sequel. Read, review and enjoy Duckies! Yes, I did call you all Duckies. I hope there aren't going to be any problems. *smiles***

I had some awareness that Adrienne had left, and that she told me to stay put. My mind has been fixed on sleep and when I was brought to the bottom of the stairs, I rested my head on a step. The next thing I knew was that I was indeed sleeping, because I was woken up from it, all too soon. Adrienne had gotten a doctor to come look at me. I'm pretty sure I had fallen asleep again once in one of the hospital beds on the ship. My sleep didn't care whether the bed was uncomfortable or not.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was probably later on in the day when I woke up. My first thought was that I should have been teaching, but one of the nurses stopped me before I could get out the door. Then I remembered that I was obviously not well enough to be out of bed. My body screamed in protest of any movement as I made my way back to my bed. I saw a couple of flowers on the nightstand. The nurse caught me staring at them. "A girl who claimed to be one of your students brought those," she said, nodding towards the flowers. "She said that they might cheer you up."

Immediately, I thought about Adrienne. She was tossed around in that battle too. Adrienne probably had some broken bones as well. The cast around my hand seemed to tighten. Somehow, I needed to find out if Adrienne was okay. My head threw ridiculous ideas out, in an attempt to answer my question, but I dismissed those and went back to sleep. I would figure something out.

­­­­­­­­­­

I was down at breakfast, and I was on autopilot. It left my mind to ponder the morning's events. Shep, and the fact that he could use magic; Ms. Tutweiller fighting Shep; Ms. Tutweiller in the hospital. I wondered how she was doing. I was fine, thanks to some spells I had cast. They mended my broken bones. I probably should have tried to heal Ms. Tutweiller, but I didn't trust myself to not hurt her. The spell was incredibly difficult to perform, and the fact that I had only done it once wasn't going to make me use it on someone else. Ms. Tutweiller was being taken care of, and that was a good thing. I had even given her flowers. But unless she had woken up anytime to see them, she wouldn't have.

"ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS! ANY STUDENT WHO HAS MS. TUTWEILLER, WILL REPORT TO SKY DECK FOR THAT PERIOD!" Mr. Moseby said over the intercom. His voice was even more annoying there. I sighed somewhat loudly, causing a couple of people to look at me. Ms. Tutweiller was my teacher for every class. I would have to sit here all day.

"Hey Adri, don't you have Tutweiller?" Tammy asked, sitting next to me. She was eating a bagel with cream cheese.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, not seeing much of a point in her asking this. Tammy seemed to see that I was not amused, and shrugged. She sighed too. It was the kind of day for sighs I guess.

"Do you know what happened? Someone said that something dreadful happened to Ms. Tutweiller," Tammy asked. I wasn't in the mood to share what exactly happened. I shook my head, which was a lie, but I could tell her later on. I wanted to see Ms Tutweiller.

"Adrienne, just the one I wanted to see," Mr. Moseby said and looked at something on a clipboard.

"Yes?" I asked, trying not to sound too depressed. I had all the reason to, though.

"Seeing as you have Ms. Tutweiller for every class period, you will be spending the next few days in…" He trailed off, looking at his clipboard again. "…Ms. Dean's classes."

"Okay Mr. Moseby," I said and picked up my backpack to go to class. I was the only one who had her for every period. I was fairly sure none of the students had Ms. Dean for every class. Or Ms. Tutweiller. But I was sure about Tutweiller because I had her for every class period.

"Adrienne Dexter, right?" Someone asked when I walked into one of the classrooms. I nodded. "Great, okay, you'll sit over there."

I walked toward where the teacher was pointing. This was the right classroom, and I was glad I found it, because I had only ever been in Ms. Tutweiller's classes. My backpack dropped to the floor with a thud. Ms. Dean didn't look up from her desk.

Then I noticed the posters all over the walls. Math. Everywhere. I was a bit discombobulated by all of them. It made the classroom seem incredibly busy. I was too nice to show my dislike for the room, though. Instead, I took out my book, a notebook, a pencil, and my really cool pink calculator.

"That's a cool calculator you got there," Ms. Dean said, making me jump. I nodded and gave her a weak smile. I was thankful that other kids started to come in and sit down. Some people were confused as to why I was there, and others didn't care.

The day went by slowly. I took in absolutely nothing, and I was glad when the last bell had rung. Slowly, I packed up my stuff, and gave Ms. Dean a nod before I walked out of the classroom. She was nice, and she teased the students a lot. Normally, I would have been laughing, but I needed to see Ms. Tutweiller. Now.

I made my way through students walking too slow, and finally reached my dorm. I also noticed the ship stopping to load and unload more passengers. I was trying to get all my stuff off and I was trying to get into the shower.

**SLAM!**

I sensed that Tammy was distraught. Something was bothering her, and I had seen fear in her eyes.

"Adrienne, you have to get away from the door! There's a man with a gun out there!" Tammy tried to pull me towards our beds. I didn't listen and I fought her off. I didn't even grab it, but my wand found its way into my hand. Tammy looked even more fearful. After fighting her off and ignoring her pleas, I threw open the door with a loud slam.

I didn't see anyone, but I could hear voices. My mind instantly looked for the one belonging to the man that threatened the safety of the ship. I found him by the hospital. _On the other side of the ship_. So I took off at a run. My wand was sill in my hand. By then time I had gotten to the hospital, I heard screams. My heart raced.

The door was locked or barricaded, I didn't know, but it wouldn't open. I blasted it open with a spell. The man had the gun pointed at Ms. Tutweiller and a nurse, both were tied up. What he wanted, I wasn't sure.

"Adrienne!" Ms. Tutweiller shouted as the man turned on me. I stood there, and watched him put the gun up to my head. Slowly, I raised my wand. He snickered.

"What are you gonna do with that flimsy stick?" He asked, quite amused.

I was amused by his stupidity. I realized that I was going to have to do some memory charms, but that was okay. "I can do much more than you can with that."

"Really? I'd like to see you try little girl," He challenged. I narrowed my eyes at him. I hated to be called 'little girl' for any reason. Ms. Tutweiller narrowed her eyes too.

"_Synexo!_" I shouted, and the man flew backwards. I flicked my wand in Ms. Tutweiller's direction, and the chain she was bound in dropped to the floor. She sprang up.

After cornering the man, I disarmed him with another spell. He somehow got his gun back and fired it.

"_Protecto!_" I was quicker, and the bullet dropped to the floor. Ms. Tutweiller waved her hand and the gun vanished. Now the man looked terrified. So did the nurse. We were scaring both of them. I smiled.

Ms. Tutweiller waved her hand again, and the man was instantly bound in ropes. I levitated him to the hallway.

"Adrienne, are you okay?" Ms. Tutweiller asked, giving me a hug. I hugged her back.

"Yes, I'm fine. How is your arm?" I asked, looking at the cast.

"Better. I see you don't have any broken bones," She observed. I nodded.

"Yeah, I fixed them. It was a bit painful though, but I was able to go to class."

Ms. Tutweiller nodded thoughtfully. We went to the hallway, and the man looked up at us fearfully. "How did you know where to find him?" She motioned towards the man.

"I used magic, in a way. I'll explain later."

"Okay. Now, we have to perform some memory charms. Can't have people running around screaming stuff about witches can we?" Ms. Tutweiller smiled. I gave her a hug and went inside the room to the nurse. I undid her chains, and modified her memory. Her eyes went glazed, but then came back into focus.

She freaked out when I told her what happened, but I assumed she'd be okay at some point. All she knew now was that I helped Ms. Tutweiller capture the guy and that Ms. Tutweiller could move around. I smiled at that last part. I wanted my teacher back.

After a while, the police officers that Mr. Moseby summoned showed up. They took the man away, and Mr. Moseby talked to Ms. Tutweiller. I was in the hospital room being checked over by the nurse, who seemed to have gotten over the shock. With her sense of duty back in, she decided I was okay. Then she turned on Ms. Tutweiller and deemed her okay.

I walked with Ms. Tutweiller back to my room. She came in, and said hi to Tammy, who was still cowering by the beds. We smiled at her, and I sat down on my bed and put my wand next to me.

"So what happened that you were able to find us?" Ms. Tutweiller asked, closing the door. I explained to her about my ability to read minds and then I explained to her how I was able to use that to find the man.

"Very interesting, indeed. And you managed to mend your broken bones," Ms. Tutweiller said, obviously deep in thought.

"I could try to fix your arm, but I don't know. I didn't try before because it's a difficult spell and done improperly, I could hurt you. So I got help instead." Ms Tutweiller looked up at me. I picked up my wand and walked over to her.

I thought about how I had done the spell before, and cleared my mind, focusing only on my teacher's bones being healed. Slowly as the book said to, I waved my wand slowly and said the incantation with closed eyes. With my eyes closed, I couldn't see Ms. Tutweiller flinch, as that was sure to cause me to screw up the spell. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes.

Ms. Tutweiller moved her arm around, and flexed her fingers. It seemed I had done the spell correctly. I vanished the cast, and Ms. Tutweiller smiled. "Thank you so much Adrienne," Ms. Tutweiller said and gave me yet another hug.

"I hope it didn't hurt too much, but your arm is fixed. Now you can return to class!" I said, suddenly very happy. Ms. Tutweiller smiled.

"It didn't hurt at all, I assure you. And yes, now I can return to class. What an interesting day this has been. Wow! It's really late," Ms. Tutweiller said, looking at the clock that read 11:01. "We all best be getting to bed, because there might be a quiz tomorrow."

Ms. Tutweiller winked at me as she closed the door. I changed into my pajamas with a flick of my wand. Setting my wand next to my alarm clock, I switched the alarm on, set to ring early the next morning. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

Ms. Dean was in my dream, and she was arguing with Ms. Tutweiller about me. I couldn't tell what they were talking about. Something about class, I was sure of that, but I couldn't pick up any actual words. Just faint mumbling voices.

I moved closer, and neither teacher noticed me. Now I could hear the conversation.

"She will come with me, it's what's best," I could hear Ms. Dean say.

"She will _not_ go with you, she's staying with me. You erratic methods of training are not only dangerous, but quite frankly, stupid. No, she will be much better off being trained by a professional," Ms. Tutweiller countered. An argument similar to that went on for the duration of my dream. I finally woke up to blinding rays of sunlight. Tammy was already awake and she was reading a book. Blinking in the sunlight, I saw spots of green and quickly moved out of the warmth. With my face not immersed in the hot rays of the sun, I shuffled over to Tammy.

"Nice," She smirked when I knocked a folder and a pencil case onto the floor. I picked them up and set them onto the desk I knocked them off of. Tammy had already returned to her book, and I could clearly read _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ across the front. Now it was my time to smirk as I read the fictious title.

"You read that series too much. Honestly you should find another," I said and tried to push a stack of books toward her. She pushed them away and again returned to the book. I sighed and pulled my shoes on.

"Where are you going?" Tammy asked, now broken out of her book-reading reverie.

"I think I'm going to go down and get something to eat," I said, though not too truthfully. It was true that I was going down to breakfast, but I also wanted to talk to Ms. Tutweiller about my dream. Ms. Dean couldn't be a witch, too, could she? My dream thought it was likely enough. But my conscious self seemed to think that it wasn't likely at all.

Down on Sky Deck, I ran into London and Cody. They were discussing projects for a science teacher they had. Apparently, Cody had been grouped with London, and Bailey had been grouped with Zack. Neither Cody nor Bailey were too happy about this arrangement. Cody was complaining loudly about how London didn't know any of the material.

"I don't know how we're expected to do anything. At least Bailey has Zack, he can do stuff, but London won't do anything!" Cody whined. I shook my head.

"I don't have your teacher, Cody, so I can't help you out. Wish I could though, but I can't stay and chat. Have to eat and get working on something for one of my classes," I was becoming a better liar every time. Not that I was thrilled about it, but stuff would spew out of my mouth faster than anything. My mind was set on eating incredibly fast, and getting to Ms. Tutweiller.

"You're eating fast enough to give you a stomach ache," Bailey said. I nodded and continued to east at my fast-set pace. She shook her head disapprovingly.

I ignored her and got up. After throwing my paper plate in the garbage, I ran up the stairs, nearly tripping.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

After the third knock, Ms. Tutweiller answered. She looked surprised to see me, but rushed me inside quickly. Teachers weren't supposed to have students in their rooms, but you can see how well that worked out. I sat in a chair that was fairly large. A strong scent of popcorn wafted through the room, and I had only just noticed it.

"Movie butter? At this time?" I asked, wondering why anyone would have popcorn this early in the day.

Ms. Tutweiller smiled and nodded, pulling out the bag that supplied the delicious scent. "Do you want some?"

I shook my head, having just eaten. When she gave me a look that implored me to tell her why I was there, I told her. She nodded and ate her popcorn, not seeming to pay much attention. But I knew she was listening.

"I don't think she is, though. But how could she be if you don't know?" I asked, deep in thought. Ms. Tutweiller shrugged and threw another piece of food into her mouth.

"Well, I can't tell you anything definite now, but I will check it out if you like," I nodded, "but I can't guarantee that you'll like the answer. Her though? In your dream? You don't even have her for any classes because you're in all of mine."

"Well, it would be nice to know. I wasn't particularly happy about this dream, but it wasn't as bad as the others," I said and decided to take my leave. There was homework I was most anxious to get to (not). I shut the door and went into my room next door.

"What is that?" I coughed, smelling some heavy perfume scent that made me gag. It had a floral smell but there was too much of whatever it was in the room.

"That's the air freshener I just got," Tammy said and picked up her book on the way to her bed. She plopped down upon it and started to read. I coughed a couple more times, and went to my nightstand.

"Well, it smells nice. Geez, Tammy, you sprayed too much!" I said, right before picking up my wand. The smell disappeared some after I waved it around to get rid of some of the air freshener's potency. It really was strong. Now that I was able to breathe, I took out some spell books and began to study them. It wasn't long before we had to head down for lunch, and I was glad for the distraction.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

I threw away the bag of popcorn, having finished it, and set about completing my task. My door closed noisily behind me and I walked almost silently down the hallway. There wasn't really a reason for it, but it was how I walked. Being cautious after the week's horrid events was crucial. I couldn't expose myself or Adrienne anymore. Adrienne would have to be careful too.

But now there might have been a new person to worry about. Adrienne described to me who might be a witch. Ms. Dean? She seemed like one of the least likely people to be one, but you never knew. After Shep, you really couldn't tell. Unless you were Adrienne, who could read minds. That ability of hers made me fearful. I didn't know what she could achieve, but it could be something great.

I walked quickly down to my colleague's dorm room. She was on the floor above, and was in charge of keeping the students in line; I did the same for my floor, though the students never really listened.

Knock, knock kno—

She opened the door and gasped at seeing me. "Emma, sorry I thought you were Mr. Moseby, back again to tell me about the misbehavings of children. What brings you here?"

"Well, it's not as important to me as it is to one of my students, Lisa. Although why, I'm not sure…" I tried to think of some excuse as to why I was there, but I couldn't think of one fast enough. She quickly led me into her room.

I was immediately distracted by all the smells, and decorations, and books in her room. I didn't even notice that she was across the room, and that the door shut on its own. I was too busy looking at everything in the room. There were glass dragons with gems implanted in their heads for eyes. There was a strong scent of incense burning. Something about the room told me that I already knew the answer to my question.

A cup of tea appeared in front of me—floating. I was shocked out of my distractedness by this. I knew then what my answer would be when Adrienne asked me about it.

"What was it that you wanted again?" Lisa calmly asked me. I took the tea and drank a tiny sip.

"It was information for one of my students, as I said before, but it's not that important," I said somewhat clumsily and set my tea on a table beside me.

"Well surely it had to have been, seeing as you came down here to get this 'information' as you put it," She waved another cup of tea in front of me. "Drink some, it's good."

I was getting somewhat annoyed, but for what I wasn't sure. "I don't think I would like anymore tea, thank you," I said and waved the two cups away. Lisa looked at me with such confusion. I sighed, realizing that I just exposed myself carelessly.

Lisa opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again, repeating this quite a few times. I made a water bottle appear before me and took to drinking that instead.

"You—you are—a—a witch?" She stammered. I nodded.

"Yes, and that was what I came down to ask you, but I do believe I have my answer," I said quickly and got up. Lisa stopped me mid-stride. She shook her head a number of times.

"You cannot tell anyone about this Emma. If you do…" She trailed off, partly in annoyance with the prospect of someone finding out about this. I nodded, and gave her a look that said "Hey, you better not tell anyone either."

I gave her another nod, and left. I would have to tell her about Adrienne. But when was the time? Surely not now, after all that had happened these last couple of days. My mind came up with the decision to tell Lisa later on in the week, and have Adrienne show her as well. This would not be easy. With a mild headache, I returned to my dorm.

After taking an aspirin, I crawled into my bed and noticed a faint scent of the popcorn that I had thrown out. It still permeated the air, and I smiled against my pillow as I drifted soundly into sleep.

I was propped on my elbow on my bed talking to Tammy. Well, I was drifting asleep and Tammy was talking excitedly about Harry Potter and going into nauseating detail about the characters. Then she went into a rant about the movies being completely different from the books. That's when she lost me.

At some point, I was too tired to keep listening to her. I shuffled to the end of the bed, and grabbed a text book. My homework couldn't wait forever. I needed to do it, so I did.

"What do you think about Fred in the last book, Adrienne?" Tammy asked me, her eyes widening.

"I don't really like Harry Potter," I mumbled, making Tammy's eyes widen impossibly more. She launched into a full-on rant about how Harry Potter is the greatest thing in the world, and how each character is like a family member and that I just dissed her lifestyle and family. Tammy went into some kind of trance as she got more and more into this argument I was clearly not participating in, probably giving her the feeling of the upper hand. I was obviously not listening, otherwise I would have said something, but I grabbed my wand, shoved it in my boot, and walked out the door.

I wasn't headed anywhere in particular; I just needed some fresh air. The cool misty breeze felt good on my skin as I once again made my way to Sky Deck. Her thoughts couldn't be heard yet, but I was sure Ms. Tutweiller would come out here and tell me to go back to my dorm. Any minute, she would come tell me this, and I would unhappily oblige.

A chair sat close to me at the bottom of the stairs, so I sat in it, watching the water. It made gentle crashing noises against the ship, but the water out further looked relatively calm. I could smell the saltwater and taste the salty droplets as I stepped closer to the edge of the ship. The lights on the edge of the ship illuminated some of the water, giving it an eerie feeling. Feeling somewhat nauseous, I stepped back some.

Another small gust of cold wind nipped at my cheeks and my bare arms. I had foolishly come outside at night, not wearing a coat. Somehow, I didn't think that was my smartest decision. Even though I was cold enough to want to go back and get a sweater, I stayed out in the cold by the water, where its coldness could splash me. Little droplets were already doing that, but waves could crash over the side.

I sat on the deck, looking up at the black sky. There were few clouds, and the moon poured its light onto the cold wood that I was sitting on. After a few yawns, I started to drift off, but I kept myself awake. A cloud moved over the moon, blocking it from view for a second, but then the moon reappeared, casting its beautiful light onto the ship once more. I bathed in this light, mesmerized by how pretty it was on the water and on the empty Sky Deck. Nobody was up here. But me.

I stared at the moon for several minutes, but I had not noticed that there was someone watching me. Bringing my legs to my chest, I got more comfortable on the hardwood floor, and looked out into the sea. My mom could never appreciate this. Freedom. She could never appreciate freedom, or the water or the moonlight. Never. It disgusted me, and I let out an equally disgusted groan. My brain started to hurt whenever I though about my mother, and this time was no exception. The peace interrupted my thoughts, and I quickly returned to not having any at all.

SLAP!

A hand had clapped itself over my face, and I panicked. The first thing that came to mind was to whip out my wand, and jab it at the person behind me. As soon as I freed myself, I shot ropes at the person, binding them. All I could see were the person's feet sticking out of the shadows. And then I saw the rope disappear. I could feel my eyes widen in shock and fear. I could also feel myself be thrown backwards. Ms. Tutweiller had done that. I was sure of it. She was the only one that could do that, because Shep was gone.

As I felt myself collide with the metal, I looked up. Ms. Dean was standing there above me, looking very angry. My mouth fell open. Ms. Dean? She couldn't be a witch, could she? But that would prove my dream right. So she had to be a witch because she just knocked me through the air without laying a hand on me.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?" Ms. Dean whispered angrily. I could see the annoyance in her eyes.

"I came down because my roommate was being loud, and I needed the fresh air. What are you doing down here?" I challenged, a bit annoyed that she had attacked me.

"That is none of your business, but you should get back to your dorm this instant!" She was still whispering, but her tone was still deadly. I could tell she wasn't happy about being poked in the face with my wand.

"I think not, Ms. Dean. And we can stand here all day and night arguing about this, or we can forget about it and let me be out here in peace," I countered. She gave a frustrated huff, and began to talk fitfully about how students shouldn't be out of bed at this time.

"Lisa, I think that will be enough," A voice sounded from behind me. I jumped and so did Ms. Dean. I didn't have time to look around, as the source of the voice appeared in front of me. My jaw dropped.

"But—but—but Emma!" Ms. Dean argued. Ms. Tutweiller stared her down, and she gave a frightened little squeak.

"No but's, Lisa. You will stop harassing _my_ student, and I will deal with her accordingly." There was a great deal of possession implied in that sentence. I looked at Ms. Tutweiller, dumbfounded by her angry glare at the other teacher. A glare that made me silent as well.

"I should have you know, Emma, that _your _student decidedly became aggressive and poked me in the eye with this," Ms. Dean held up my wand. I stood up straighter.

"Give me my wand back," I said angrily.

"I think I will keep it," Ms. Dean said coldly. She sounded slightly amused, but there was nothing that could have caused her to smile. Ms. Tutweiller took the wand and handed it to me.

I stuffed it in my pocket and shifted a bit closer to Ms. Tutweiller out of some irrational fear of being hexed by Ms. Dean. Each teacher shot a glare at the other, and finally Ms. Tutweiller broke the gaze.

"Adrienne, we are going now," Ms. Tutweiller said, leaving Ms. Dean to look very smug. I guess she thought she had won. I wasn't going to let her. This wasn't over yet.

**Okay Duckies! Until next update! Chapter 10, coming soon! **


	10. Chapter 10

I shoved Adrienne up the stairs, angry at a number of things, but she came second to the top of that list. Though I knew I shouldn't have pushed her as hard as I did, I didn't hurt her or make her fall, so she could suck it up. Adrienne had gotten to my last nerve, and now was time for her punishment. "Adrienne, you shouldn't have gone out this late at night; we've been through this before."

Adrienne looked absolutely enraged as she confronted me. "I can't get some air, Ms. Tutweiller? That's not allowed if I'm choking in that air freshener Tammy keeps spraying or if she won't shut up so I can sleep?" she asked in an incredulous tone, as if she felt betrayed I hadn't allowed her the small freedom.

"No, Adrienne, it's not allowed, because of your habit of getting in trouble, whether you mean to or not. You can open up a window if the smell bothers you, and ear plugs are a great invention. I believe you will be serving detention tomorrow with Mr. Moseby, Adrienne, and I hope to see you out of your dorm and in class," I told her and turned to the hallway that held my wonderful bed that I was starting to miss.

"You know I wouldn't have done anything, right? I wouldn't have even thought about taking my wand out if I had known who was there, and if she hadn't have put her hand over my mouth. My reaction was purely instinct, and after the past few days I've had, I'm sure you could understand, Ms. Tutweiller," Adrienne said and walked quickly ahead of me, reaching her dorm before I could say anything.

Adrienne had been attacked first? I had figured, but I didn't know that my colleague could have been so aggressive in what she had done. Clearly, all three of us were wrong, but wasn't Adrienne right? If Lisa approached her in a way that couldn't have been received the way Adrienne had received it, the entire confrontation might have been avoided. Didn't I know that? With a shake of my head to clear it, I headed to my room, which held the bed that I now dearly missed.

I could hear Adrienne shuffling next door, and eventually she climbed into her bed. Slowly getting to mine, I used my magic to change back into my pajamas, since I was too tired to actually go through it twice in one night. The clock read five after midnight, and I groaned, wondering how I'd catch up on the sleep I kept missing from the past few weeks. My blankets were cold as I climbed into them, letting my now very comfortable position take me to dreamland.

Ms. Tutweiller pushed my up the stairs and onto the landing, the idea of being pushed not helping me. She'd probably tell me to suck it up anyway, so I didn't say anything, just to avoid the annoyance that would soon follow any statement I made on the subject of her anger.

"Adrienne, you shouldn't have gone out this late at night; we've been through this before." Her tone was tired and very angry. Understandable, since it was really late and most people like to sleep at this time.

I felt myself becoming tired and mad trying to get sense through to her. "I can't get some air, Ms. Tutweiller? That's not allowed if I'm choking in that air freshener Tammy keeps spraying or if she won't shut up so I can sleep?"

Ms. Tutweiller gave me a stern look. "No, Adrienne, it's not allowed, because of your habit of getting in trouble, whether you mean to or not. You can open up a window if the smell bothers you, and ear plugs are a great invention. I believe you will be serving detention tomorrow with Mr. Moseby, Adrienne, and I hope to see you out of your dorm and in class," she said and started to walk to her room.

I would have let her go away, but I wasn't finished quite yet. "You know I wouldn't have done anything, right? I wouldn't have even thought about taking my wand out if I had known who was there, and if she hadn't have put her hand over my mouth. My reaction was purely instinct, and after the past few days I've had, I'm sure you could understand, Ms. Tutweiller," I told her and walked off to my dorm before anything else could be said.

Tammy was sleeping as I stepped into the room, so, very quietly, I closed the door and padded soundlessly over to my bed. My blankets sat messily on top of my bed, since I was too lazy to remake it when I left the room. I heard some movement next door, but didn't think much of it before I climbed back under my covers, my body relaxing immediately; it felt good to be in such a peaceful position, and I closed my eyes.

Sunlight was shining into the room when I woke up, creating pretty rays of light from the windows. With a smile, I sat up and stretched, looking at the beauty in awe. It was the little things that I appreciated most, like the small gifts and thank you's I seldom received from my students sometimes. With a deep stretch, I pulled the warm covers off and slid out of bed, shuffling noisily over to my dresser to pull out some clothes. Satisfied with my outfit and too lazy to actually put them on, I snapped them on with point of my finger.

_Wandless magic_, I thought, making a mental note to try to teach that to Adrienne when we had our next lesson. _Plan the lesson too, Emma, goodness!_

Students were slowly walking around the hallways, visiting friends and most were walking down to Sky Deck for breakfast; I was heading there myself, wary of people I did not want to run into. I found myself lucky when I got to the buffet, since most of the food wasn't gone yet, and I hadn't run into anyone yet who I did not desire a conversation with. Plate semi-filled with the good food that the ship had to offer, I looked for a seat and sat down in it, eating while looking out at the vast expenses of the ocean.

"Emma, just the one I was looking for."

I turned around on the stool to face Mr. Moseby and internally groaned; he was one of the people I did not want to run into yet without my energy from breakfast. My morning was officially ruined, and all because of one man who I had brief "thing" with. "What can I do for you, Mr. Moseby?"

"I ran into a very angry teacher last night and she said that one of your young charges was out and about after curfew. Would you happen to know anything about this?" he asked me, speaking in strictly a professional tone.

"Yes, I would happen to know _something_ about that." I tried to move away, but he caught my arm.

"You _will_ tell me, Emma."

I looked at him, fixing him with a dark stare. "I do believe that when I am asked to keep something in confidence by a student, I will not betray said student's trust. A promise was made regarding a student's personal life, and I do believe that I will keep it in complete secrecy. As for the time in which this escapade took place, Mr. Moseby, I will assure you that the student knows the consequences of her actions. If you will kindly remove your hand, Mr. Moseby," I said icily and he let go, leaving me to continue to the bar. Shaking with some anger, I sent some food in his direction, having it land messily on his white work attire and pretended to care when he asked which one of the "hooligans" on Sky Deck managed this feat.

My thoughts drifted to Adrienne, and I wondered how much longer she could stay out of trouble for.

I watched Ms. Tutweiller coolly navigate Mr. Moseby's interrogation as I ate my food.

"Why are you always watching Ms. Tutweiller, Adri? She's not _that good-looking, you know. Nobody matched up with her…"_

"_You're being absolutely stupid," I started, looking sternly at Tammy, "and you shouldn't judge any book by its cover, as the cliché goes." Suddenly disinterested in my food, I got up to throw the remains away, in the process spotting London, who looked grim as she sat on one of the chaise lounges on Sky Deck. _

"_London, what's up?"_

_The girl looked at me. "Oh, hey, Adri. Daddy grounded me for a week and now I only have a thousand dollars for allowance."_

"_Well, that's sad, but I'm sure that he had his reasons because he cares about you. Stuff like this is supposed to make you a better person, London, so maybe you'll learn something from being grounded," I said and gave her what I hoped was a sad and sympathetic look. She didn't look very relieved by that as I had hoped._

"_Very wise, Adrienne. Maybe you should be teaching instead of me."_

_I turned around abruptly to face Ms. Tutweiller, who looked slightly miffed at Mr. Moseby, who had begun to weasel out the child responsible for throwing food at him. She looked a bit angry at me too, and I paused to think about what I could have done today that would have angered her. Well, there was the stuff from last night, so maybe she was still peeved about it. _

"_Did you need something, Ms. Tutweiller?" I asked, holding my own against her steely gaze. _

"_We need to talk," she said and walked away in the direction of our rooms. _


	11. Dear Readers

Dear readers,

I _**hate**_ to do this, but I was looking through this story, and it seems that there are a few errors that I want to address. _What does this mean, Comet?_ Duckies, it means that this story is going on hiatus for a little while so that I can address these issues. Eventually, I'll be able to repost the story, and it won't be so confusing, and the line breaks _will_ be there, and the POV will be _all_ the same. :-) Thanks for sticking with me on this! Promise you, Duckies, that it'll come out better and stronger because of it.

This story is an effort of four years, so a lot can change, and I'm not so sure that I like the changes in the writing so much; I'm going to fix it.

Thanks for reading this! When the story is fixed, I'll take this out. :-)

Comet


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